The Strongest Numbers: Discarded Memories
by Tsukuyomi-chan
Summary: Second in The Strongest Numbers trilogy. After the WDC, something strange is happening. When Yuma and Astral try to stop this new force, they get sucked into a strange world where they're just characters in a tv show. But now new Numbers are rising, and they plan on destroying not just Yuma's world, but every other world too. Some Skyshipping
1. A Strange New World

**Me: Hello! Welcome to the second instalment of The Strongest Numbers! Wow. That's, like, the fanciest language I've ever used I think!**

**Astral: It is because you are too informal with everything. You need to start being more mature with your behaviour.**

**Me: I am not immature ya know! Uh, okay a bit! But that's not the point here! We do not own Yugioh Zexal or Yugioh Zexal II, which is also awesome!**

**Astral: Here is a summary if you want to catch up briefly. **

** Last time on 'The Strongest Numbers':**

** Yuma lost his duel against III, leaving him hopeless and Astral gone. He discovered a strange Number card and began acting normal, but the Numbers didn't help him completely. Insanity happened. Then Yuma's friends met One, a very strange person who was helping Yuma. Yuma redueled III, and won. However, a mysterious person was watching them. And now it has been revealed that Yuma didn't win the first time because of another strange person called Force, or Barian is after something to be revealed. What will happen next?**

* * *

**Prologue**

"Looks like there's no choice." A voice said. "There's no other way now. He's gone on too far with his plan. We'll need to do it."

"That is true," Another voice said, "but he if he accidentally messes up in the process, that could save us all."

"He's too good to mess up here. The only way to delay him now is by sending Number 39's Yuma and Astral after him. It seems like they're the only ones strong enough for it."

"39? Do you really think they're strong enough?"

"They seem as strong as any of the others, maybe stronger."

"But they'll be up against him. He's been calling himself the strongest Numbers lately."

"Well he certainly is strong, but we can match him."

"We're still not able to regain our full strength in these other worlds."

"So we borrow strength."

The other voice sighed. "It seems like you haven't changed."

"Of course! Kattobingu all the way!"

**Chapter 1: Entering a New World**

**(Dunno why but the thing won't let me underline the title. Annoying)**

**Yuma: 1200**

**?: 2000**

"This guy's tough!" Yuma said as he glared across at his opponent, a man dressed in a dark cloak with a hood making it impossible to see his face.

It had already been a week since the WDC ended, and Yuma was just enjoying a stroll home with the rest of his friends when he had been ambushed and forced into a duel.

"Calm down Yuma. There's still a way to win." Astral said while floating next to him.

"Yeah! It's my turn! Draw!" Yuma yelled.

"I summon Goblindbergh! Goblindbergh's effect! I can summon another monster from my hand! I choose Ganbara Knight!" The flight planes of goblins flew onto the battlefield carrying a large cargo box. When the lid of the box opened, a knight with a large shield jumped out.

"I overlay my level four Goblindbergh and my level four Ganbara Knight! I build the overlay network with these two level four monsters! Exceed Summon!"

The gold and white sealed form of a familiar Numbers rose from the ground. It unfolded part by part. "Appear! Numbers 39! Kibou Ou Hope!"

"So this is your Numbers…." The man Yuma was dueling said. "This is the original Numbers given to this world's…."

"What are you talking about?" Yuma asked. "That doesn't make any sense!"

"Focus Yuma!" Astral said. "Activate the spell."

"I activate the spell Blustering Winds! Now Hope gains a thousand attack points! Hope! Attack Reign-Beaux, Overlord of Dark World!"

Hope leapt towards the demon and drew his swords, slicing apart the monster.

**Yuma: 1200**

**?: 1000**

"Yes! Yuma's in the lead!" Kotori yelled.

"I set one card and end my turn!"

"Not bad." The man said as he got up from the ground. "But not good enough. Draw! I summon Snoww, Unlight of Dark World!"

"Two level four monsters!" Tetsuo yelled.

"Is it coming? Numbers?" Astral said.

"I overlay my level four Snoww and my level four Brron, Mad King of Dark World! I build the overlay network with these two level four monsters! Exceed summon!"

A pitch-black sword like mechanism rose from the ground and began transforming apart into a dark, demonic warrior. "Appear! Numbers Ninety—"

The man was cut off by the Number's inhumane roar. The area around the duel got darker and darker from the Numbers.

"3000 attack points?" Tetsuo yelled.

"Yuma! Be careful!" Kotori warned.

"Something is not right here." Astral said, looking around carefully.

_"Astral. Yuma."_ A deep voice said.

"What? Who's there?" Yuma called.

"This feeling…" Astral frowned.

_"Astral. Yuma."_ The voice chuckled evilly. _"Try as hard as you want. There's nothing you can do. You two are some of the few remaining."_

"Remaining? What's he talking about?" Yuma asked. He had a bad feeling about what would happen next.

"Attack Hope now!" The man yelled.

"I activate Hope's effect! By removing one overlay unit, I stop your attack!" Yuma yelled as his Numbers threw out his sword to block the attack.

"Hmph! I activate my trap, Ring of Destruction!" The man yelled. "Now we both take damage equal to my Number's attack points!"

"What?!" Yuma shouted.

"A draw?" Astral wondered.

A fiery ring appeared around the dark warrior's neck. It exploded, sending everyone flying back.

**Yuma: 0**

**?: 0**

A sliver of darkness came from the Numbers before it disappeared and shot across the alley, slamming into Yuma's pendant and going into it. The Key began to shine with a dark aura.

"Wha? What's going on?!" Yuma yelled.

"Something has gone into the Emperor's Key. It is most likely looking for Numbers." Astral said. "Yuma, we need to stop them."

"Yeah!" The dark aura died down around the Key, and Yuma stood up. Kotori and Tetsuo ran over to him.

"Yuma! What was that?" Kotori asked.

"I don't know, but it's going after the Numbers. Me and Astral are gonna stop them now!" Yuma replied.

"Be careful. You don't know what could happen." She said.

Yuma nodded. Him and Astral both disappeared into the Key, which fell into Kotori's hands. She looked at it worriedly. "Please be safe."

_**-Inside The Key-**_

Yuma walked down the Key with Astral floating next to him. "Who do you think is after the Numbers this time?" He asked.

"I don't know, but I felt something very strange from whoever this is." Astral said as they arrived at the giant mechanism that held the Numbers.

"Everything seems normal." Yuma said as he squinted at the Number seals. "Huh? I think we had one more. Which one's missing?"

Astral quickly scanned the Numbers. "It is Numbers 96."

"What?! Black Mist again?!" Yuma yelled. "When is he gonna give up?!"

_No._ Astral thought. _It's not just him this time. There's something bigger going on._

The Numbers began shining brightly.

"What?! What's going on?!" Yuma shouted as he and Astral shielded their eyes.

"This is…. Don't tell me!" Astral shouted, squinting at the light.

The light grew brighter and brighter as it blinded the room. In the back of Yuma's mind, he thought he heard a voice, _his_ voice, laughing evilly at them.

_**-linebreakofsomesort-**_

When Yuma opened his eyes again, he was standing in the middle of a small room, a bedroom, judging from the two beds. There were two dressers, a closet, posters of the three duel kings; Yugi, Jaden, and Yusei, and for some strange reason, a Sesame Street light hanging from the ceiling.

"Uh…" Yuma looked around. "Where is this?"

"I'm home!" A voice called from outside the room. Thumping was heard and a second later, the door pushed open. A girl around Yuma's age walked in. She had messy black hair and dirty casual clothes and a backpack, which was thrown on the ground.

"Um, hi!" Yuma said as the girl noticed him. She stared at him in shock, her mouth hanging open.

"I'm Yuma Tsukumo. Do you know where this is? Sorry if I'm intruding or anything, but I just found myself here!" Yuma said.

The girl continued staring.

"So, if you could help me figure out what's going on, I'll be on my way!"

The girl finally opened her mouth. "Oh….. what the heck is going on."

* * *

**Me: Hello again! Hope you liked the first chapter! I wonder who were the two at the beginning! And who's this new enemy! He was hinted in the final chapter of the prequel before this. Um, is it called a prequel?**

**Astral: Technically, since this is the sequel to it, I believe it is appropriate.**

**Me: Great! So read it if you want to get caught up! Review the chapter and see you some other time! Yuma's world is about to get thrown into chaos in more ways than one!**


	2. Many Head Bonkings

**Me: Hello! I am bored so please enjoy this chapter which I forgot about for a while! Ahehe…**

**Astral: Stay more focused. You will finish it faster.**

**Me: I'm trying! But I have to do this poster for school and I don`t own Yugioh Zexal or Yugioh Zexal II no matter how much I try! So anyway, here! **

* * *

**Chapter 2: Many Head Bonkings**

"Huh? What are you talking about?" Yuma looked at the girl, who was still staring.

"U-U-Uh…. W-Well….." She pointed at him shakily. "Uhhh…"

"Hm?" An older woman walked into the room and looked at Yuma, the girl's mom. "Oh, this is where you've been!"

"You know them?!" The girl yelled.

"Of course?" Her mom looked at her in confusion. "He's your cousin after all."

"Cousin?!"

"He's visiting for some time. Uh, that's strange. I can't remember, what was your name again?"

"Oh! I'm—"

"Yuya!" The girl interrupted Yuma. "Yuya… Tsukune!"

"Oh that's right! I guess I must have blanked for the second." Her mom laughed. "Well, we already have a room for you ready. Tell me when you're ready to move in."

"Sure." Yuma nodded as the mom left and closed the door. "Okay, what was that about?"

"It seems we have been transported to some other place." Astral said.

"Y-Yeah…." The girl said. "Sure. Yuma Tsukumo and Astral are standing in my room. Yeah…."

Then she ran over to the wall and began hitting her head on it repeatedly. "This is just a dream! This is just a dream! I'll wake up in a sec! This is just a dream!"

"W-Woah!" Yuma ran over. "This isn't a dream! So can you just tell me where I am and…. How do you know Astral's name? And how can you see Astral?"

"How would I know that!" The girl held her head as she stopped hitting it. "I just come home from school to see you two standing in my room! It's very awkward ya know!"

"Well it would be a bit weird to find a stranger in your ro—"

"No it's not that! You two aren't supposed to exist!"

Yuma stared at the girl. "Wha?"

The girl sighed. "Look. This might be hard to accept, but see here, you," she pointed at Yuma, "are an animated, _not real_ main character of a tv show for us called Yugioh Zexal."

"What?"

"And Astral," she pointed at Astral, "you're an emissary from the Astral world connected to Yuma to gather the Numbers. You're also a character."

"What?"

"Hmm…" Astral looked at Yuma. "Would this be one of those 'strange' situations you talk about?"

"Yes! Yes! I don't get it! I am not a tv show! I am a person!" Yuma yelled.

"Well in this world you're just a character on a tv show!" The girl yelled back.

"So you are saying we are some of those 'fictional characters' found on tv shows? Like ESPer Robin?" Astral asked.

"Well, not really. It's more complicated than that. See, there's two kinds of tv shows. There's the kind where real people act out make-believe situations, for you, that would be stuff like ESPer Robin. Then there's another kind where people just draw cartoons and animate them, where the characters aren't real, which is Yugioh Zexal, and you guys."

Yuma stared at her. "Huh?"

"You don't get tv? For shame Yuma!"

"It doesn't make sense! If I'm a tv character, then how am I here?!"

"How would I know!"

"I still don't believe it!"

"I don't believe it either but you stopped me from hitting my head on the wall! Anyway look at this!" The girl marched out of the room and went downstairs. Yuma and Astral followed.

The girl went to the dining table and opened her laptop. Her mom was sitting across on her own laptop doing some work.

"Hmm? Sarah? Are you done already?" Her mom asked.

"Yeah." Sarah said.

"You're name's Sarah?" Yuma whispered.

"Just shut up and look at this." Sarah whispered back. On the computer screen was a place called with an article titled 'Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL'. Yuma read the description and stared at it.

"Okay, that's creepy."

"See." Sarah said.

"But it doesn't say the main character's name! The plot's summary is identical to what happened before Astral came, but it doesn't say any names!"

"What?" Sarah looked at the page. Whenever it came to the name of either Yuma or Astral, the name was blanked out. The pictures where Yuma and Astral should have been were empty. "Wait what the heck?!"

"And who's Reginald?" Yuma asked.

"That's, uh…." Sarah facepalmed and exhaled. "That's….Shark."

Yuma stared at her. "What?! Shark's name is Ryoga Kamishiro! Not _Reginald_!"

"I know, but see, 4Kids changed it when they were dub—"

"4Kids?! I still don't get everything!"

"Yuma." Astral said. "It seems we are in a world where we are tv show characters, and whatever brought us into this world has blocked our names from here to stop anyone from getting suspicious when you have the same name as this tv show. The picture is blank to stop anyone from recognizing us too."

"Suuuuure?"

"Well, whatever." Sarah said. "You know how to get back? Cause it's my favourite tv show."

"Don't you think if we knew we'd be gone by now?!"

"Hmmm, no not really!"

Yuma sweat-dropped. "Of all the people to get stuck with…"

"I'm the worst yeah yeah heard it before whatever for now what are we gonna do about this!"

"I suggest we just go with whatever happens for now until we can figure out what is going on." Astral said.

"Sure!" Yuma nodded.

"And one more thing," Astral looked at Sarah. "Is there duel monsters in this world?"

"Uh, yeah, but…" Sarah laughed nervously. "Well, in this world it's called Yugioh."

"You mean like the show you said we were in?" Yuma asked.

"Yeah."

"So does that mean there are Numbers in this world too?"

"Kinda, but they're different. Wait a sec!" She ran upstairs and then ran back down, holding some cards. "See, Numbers!"

"Hope?! How do you have Hope?!" Yuma yelled.

"And there is Revice Dragon along with Crimson Shadow Armor Ninja and Galaxy Queen." Astral added.

"These are the only ones I have." Sarah shrugged. "I know others who have way more."

"There are Number Hunters in this world too?"

"Well, I wouldn't really call them Number Hunters. See, in this world, you just buy booster packs and hope you get lucky enough to pull a good Number. Hope's a really common one though, cause you can get him in a whole bunch of trial decks. They don't have any special powers in this world. They're just another card."

"But there's no Astral in this world." Yuma wondered. "So maybe cause Astral wasn't in this world, the Numbers weren't anything special!"

"Um, I highly doubt that. They just print these cards and sell them. It was based on your show, nothing else."

"But," Astral said, "some force brought us into this world. This force is very powerful, so there is no telling what it might do. It might decide to use these Numbers."

"How?! These can't exactly possess people ya know! They don't have spirits in this world! I'm still doubting the fact that you're actually here and that this isn't a dream ya know!"

"I still don't believe you on the 'different world' thing too!" Yuma said. "But there's no choice but to go with it right now!"

Sarah stared at him. Finally she spoke. "Fine! Stay for a while. As soon as something makes sense, I'll be waiting. I have homework to do." Then she walked off upstairs.

Yuma looked at Astral. "What are we gonna do?"

"I don't know. We will have to figure out a way to go back to our world, and I think the Numbers are the key."

"But you heard her. There's nothing special about Numbers in this world."

"Maybe there wasn't before," Astral looked out the window. "But there is something not right going on. Most likely it will be getting ready for something. We will have to counter it."

Yuma smiled. "So we just have to save the world then? Easy!"

_**-The Next Day-**_

Sarah walked into her classroom sleepily. She dumped her stuff on her desk and lay down. It was a crazy day yesterday which, when she woke up this morning, apparently wasn't a dream.

"Oh well, maybe something'll make sense at school. It's boring so it should stay the same." She mumbled.

The rest of the kids walked into the class and sat at their desks as her teacher went to the front of the class.

"We have a new transfer student today." The teacher said. "I hope you will all be nice to him. Please welcome Yuya Tsukune."

_ What?_

Yuma walked into the classroom happily with Astral floating behind him. "Hi there! My name's Yuya Tsukune and I'm new here!"

_What?_

"I'm from Heartland City!"

_What?!_

"If any of you have any rare trading cards, be sure to show me!" Yuma smiled.

There was the unmistakable sound of someone hitting their head on their desk repeatedly at the back of the room.

* * *

**Me: Yup! Tune in some other time and maybe the third chapter will be up! Maybe some of the Number's secrets will be revealed! Maybe something cool will happen! Maybe I'll just sit there and go 'here you go the next chapter' while I drink orange juice! I love orange juice!**

**Astral: That is not the point.**

**Me: I know but I love orange juice! It goes with reviews!**

**Astral: You have never read reviews with orange juice. **

**Me: But I do it with everything else! Bye! Review! And drink some orange juice! It's tasty!**


	3. Yuma's Inability to Understand Women

**Me: Hello! I never really thought of anything to say at the beginning of the chapter so I say hello! Hello hello hello hello!**

**Astral: Why don't you say hi?**

**Me: Because… because….. I actually don't know. Uh, how about I say hi from now on! Hi! Hi hi hi!**

**Astral: That is still unrelated to the chapter. We do not own Yugioh Zexal or Yugioh Zexal II.**

**Me: Oh, and I dunno if I mentioned this before, but this is AU. So this takes place instead of Yugioh Zexal II. See you after the chapter.**

* * *

**Chapter 3: Yuma's Inability to Understand Women**

"Why the heck are you here?!" Sarah whisper-yelled to Yuma at his new locker.

"Well, your mom insisted on me going to school too to not miss out on any education." Yuma said nonchalantly, lying against the locker. "So I figured, why not! Let's see what your world's school's like! It's really low-tech! There's no D-Pads anywhere and you have to write everything down! Plus the garbage cans just stay there, not like O-Bots like all!"

Sarah stared at him. "Well excuse me but I can't control how much technology this world has you know! This is what everything in this world's like!"

"Anyway, what class do we have next?" Yuma asked.

"Gym class. Hurry and go! Mr. Macdonald gets pretty angry if you're late for his class!"

"Well then come on then!" Yuma began running down the hall, then stopped. He turned back slowly. "Uh, which way is the gym?"

"This way now come on!" Sarah yelled as she began dragging him down the hall with Astral floating behind them.

_**-linebreaktransitionIdunnobut anywaysometimelaterwhydon'tIspace?-**_

"My arms hurt!" Yuma whined.

"It's just volleyball. Besides, next class we're doing wrestling." Sarah said as they came out of the gym change rooms.

"Why does the ball come down so hard?!"

"More importantly, why were you yelling Kattobingu all the way across the room?!" Sarah demanded. "You yelled it and jumped up to slam the ball, only to slam _yourself_ into the net!"

"Well, if I Kattobingu, I can do anything!"

"Except hit the ball?"

"Everyone was laughing at you Yuma." Astral said. "But it was a good thing you said the net was soft."

"It wasn't." Yuma muttured.

Sarah watched the two argue and cracked up.

"What's so funny?" Yuma asked.

"I dunno, you two are just so funny!" Sarah kept laughing. "It's so weird that's all!"

"Hah? I don't get it…."

"Anyway, just get your lunch." Sarah waved her hand dismissively. "There's five more minutes until lunch time."

Yuma stopped walking.

"What?" Sarah looked at him, then realized what he was worried about. More heard what he was worried about. His stomach growled extra loudly right in the middle of the hallway.

Sarah facepalmed. "Don't tell me…"

"Ahehe…." Yuma laughed sheepishly. "Your mom didn't pack me any lunch. She just sent me off to school."

". . . . You're so paying me back for this." She went to her locker, took out some money, and gave it to Yuma. "You'll probably be waiting for some time. The line's pretty long."

"Great thanks bye!" Yuma ran off down the hall.

"Ah wait!" Sarah yelled too late. She looked at Yuma's running form and sighed. "I just lent money to Yuma Tsukumo. This is really getting weird."

"Don't worry about it." Astral said. Sarah looked up to see Astral floating next to her instead of Yuma.

"You still here?" She asked.

"Yuma can be quite thick-headed about others around him sometimes." Astral said.

She sighed again. "Yeah…. I watched all of the episodes so I know."

"So these episodes are parts of the adventures that I have with Yuma?"

"Yeah. Like the first and second episode are Yuma and you's duel with Shark."

"Hmm." Astral began thinking.

"But still," Sarah smiled. "He's still really cool. You wouldn't believe how many fangirls he has here! But then, I bet Shark and Kaito have more."

"Fangirls? You mean girls who are fans of Yuma? There are not any in our world. The girls try and ask Yuma to deliver their 'fanmail' to Shark, Kaito, or IV usually."

Sarah started laughing. "Yeah, that's hilarious!"

Astral smiled. "Well I guess it would be normal."

"Yuma's not as old as Shark or Kaito, and not as well known as IV in your world."

"Still, this world of your is very interesting. It would be good to observe more of it."

"You and your observations…" Sarah sighed.

"If Yuma is going to lunch, why are you not?"

"Huh?" Then Sarah's stomach growled. "Oh, right!" She grabbed her lunch and ran down the hallway after Yuma. "Wait up I'm hungry too!"

Astral looked at her. "This human is interesting too."

_** -SometimelaternoideawhyIdon'tspacethese-**_

"Jeez… where'd that Yuma go…" Sarah muttured as she looked around the huge, crowded, noisy cafeteria. "I hate eating here but that idiot ended up here somewhere. It's so crowded here!"

Then she spotted Yuma eating at a crowded table with a whole other bunch of kids, obviously enjoying himself with the others happily.

"Oh great." She mumbled. "Of all people to sit with…"

"What is wrong?" Astral said next to her. "Why don't you call Yuma?"

"Uh, I think Yuma'll be just fine!" Sarah said quickly. "Why don't I go eat lunch in my usual spot without him!"

"But don't you need to watch over Yuma? What if something happens?"

"Oh he'll be fine!"

"I still think we should watch him."

"Why don't _you _watch him while _I_ go somewhere else to eat!"

"Why do you not want to go over there so much?"

"Look, I just don't like those people, okay? Is it not okay to avoid the people you don' like?" She hissed.

"Why don't you just get him. It will be over quickly. I have to talk to Yuma."

Sarah stared at him. "Fine! Thirty seconds and it's over." She stomped over to where Yuma was sitting.

"Oi, Yu, ya. Yuya, where have you been?" She asked.

"Oh hey Sarah!" Yuma smiled, waving a chicken drumstick. "These are really good!"

"Go away nobody likes you." A tall blonde boy said suddenly.

"Come on already Yuya." Sarah said, ignoring the boy.

"You know, he doesn't have to do whatever you say!" A brown-haired girl in a ponytail said. "What are you, his babysitter?"

"She's just probably desperate for some company so she wants to hang out with the new guy!" The boy laughed, along with the rest of them.

Yuma frowned. "That's not very nice."

"Forget it and come on." Sarah hissed as she tugged at his arm. Yuma didn't move.

"What, everyone knows you're just a little girl with no friends! Don't want another person to know?" The boy teased.

"Hey!" Yuma yelled.

"Shut up…." Sarah mumbled.

"Newbie, what's with sticking up for the loner?" Another boy yelled. "Thought you were cooler than that!"

"She doesn't need your sympathy!" A girl laughed. "She's just fine as the wreck that she is!"

Yuma suddenly stood up, slamming his hands against the table. "You, you people…"

"Come on!" Sarah then pulled him all the way out of the lunch room. She pulled him all the way to the library and threw him down in a seat.

"What were you doing?!" She whisper-yelled.

"You were just taking all of that without caring?!" Yuma said back.

"Just ignore them! They're jerks, every one of them." Sarah muttered. "They do it all the time anyway."

"Do you really have no friends?"

Sarah froze. "That's none of your business."

"Why not?" Yuma demanded.

"Look, forget it. We have to walk home today. It's a 40 minute walk, 30 minutes if we run for a bit, 20 if we run the whole way, 50-60 if you want to get some food or a slushie on the way. There's still 20 minutes left in lunch. You can go outside to play, I usually stay in the library."

"Oh." Yuma said, trying to wrap his head around the numbers she just said. "Sure."

"Great now just stay put and don't do anything stupid." Sarah said and began walking away, deeper into the library.

"Wait!"

"What?" She turned around, obviously annoyed.

"Doesn't it get lonely by yourself in the library?"

She stared at him. "None of your business jeez!" Then she walked off.

Yuma looked at her. "Hey Astral."

"Yes?" Astral said next to him.

"Do you think, maybe, there are people lonely here too?"

"Well, no matter where you are, there's always a chance someone will be left out of things."

"Yeah." Sarah was curled up in a corner reading a book by herself. Yuma began thinking, then his eyes light up with an idea.

"Well, I bet if I duel her, everything will be fine!"

Astral facepalmed. "I will restate observation number 11. It seems that Yuma still doesn't understand women's feelings."

"H-Hah? What does that mean?!"

"Oh, nothing really."

* * *

**Me: And there! Sorry if, well, I dunno. Guess I just felt like saying sorry! Weird, right!**

**Astral: Not that much for you.**

**Me: Weird instincts! Like that time I kept on craving ham so I ate 5 slices of it!**

**Astral: It's a miracle your stomach can hold that much down. **

**Me: Anyway, review and see you all next time!**


	4. What This World Is About

**Me: Hello I'm eating cheese and crackers right now!**

**Astral: Why are you telling people about it?**

**Me: BECAUSE I LOVE CHEESE AND CRACKERS! IF YOU HAVE ANY CHEESE WITH CRACKERS GIVE THEM TO ME NOW! I do not own Yugioh Zexal or Yugioh Zexal II or Yugioh Zexal III or Yugioh Zexal IV or, wait a sec, there's no Zexal III or Zexal IV yet. Whoops.**

**Astral: Think a bit before you talk.**

**Me: Yeah yeah ENJOY AND SEE YOU AFTER THE CHAPTER!**

* * *

**Chapter 4: What This World Is About**

Yuma yawned as he leaned on his desk in class. It was English class and they were reading a book called The Outsiders. Their teacher was nice so for this class they were just listening to the audiobook version of chapter 6 without doing any work.

"Yuma, don't fall asleep in class." Sarah hissed in his ear.

"But there's nothing to do." Yuma whined quietly.

"Just listen to the book. We're gonna have questions related to it next class."

The chapter ended off and the teacher stood up. "Okay, go back to your homeroom. That's all for today. Goodbye."

The class said goodbye as they gathered their stuff and left to wait in the hallway for the other class in their homeroom to finish.

"Hey, Sarah?" Two girls walked up to her and asked. "You seem to know the new kid Yuya well. How is that?"

"Oh, Yuya?" Sarah began thinking. "Well…."

"Are you going to tell them about how you found us in your room?" Astral floated over her and asked.

"Like I would say that!" She yelled at him.

"Um, are you okay?" One of the girls asked.

"Wha? Oh, just fine! Fine! Don't worry about it! Ahehe…." Sarah said quickly.

"How do you think he gets his hair like that?" Another girl asked.

"His…hair?"

"Yeah! How does it stick up lie this in the back," She motioned the four spikes in the back of Yuma's hair, "and this at the front?" she motioned the two spikes of Yuma's bangs.

"Uh…" Now that Sarah thought about it, she was so used to Yuma's hair by now she never thought of it as weird. Plus it was technically impossible in this world for someone's hair to stick up like that. "Well…."

"Kattobingu daze!" A yell came from down the hall. There was some cheering down at the end of the hall and the three girls turned towards it.

"What's going on?"

"Dunno."

"It seems Yuma just challenged a boy to see who could drink the water faster." Astral said. "They both have a large waterbottle filled and the first one to drink it all wins."

"What?!" Sarah ran down the hall to see Yuma done half of the water, while his opponent was only done a third, but was catching up fast.

"Oh jeez Yuma." His opponent was drinking faster, and soon Yuma was losing. Then his opponent yelled happily and threw his empty bottle on the ground and stepped on it. Yuma finished five seconds later. He gasped as he swallowed all of the water.

"You lost, now pay up!" The winner yelled at Yuma.

"Sure! Just gimme a sec!" Yuma ran over to Sarah. "Can I borrow five bucks?"

"What?! Why?!"

"We bet five bucks on whoever won. I don't have five bucks. Can I have five bucks?"

"I gave you all my money for lunch!"

"Oh." Yuma turned back sheepishly. "Uh, there seems to be a problem. I, uh, don't have five bucks."

"What?! I won so give me the money!"

"But I don't have any—"

"He'll give you it tomorrow!" Sarah interrupted. "Right Yuya?"

"Uh, sure!" Yuma nodded his head. "Yeah!"

"Hmph. Fine." Then the boy and his friends walked away. Sarah dragged Yuma away from the others.

"What are you doing?!" She whisper-hissed at him.

"The guy was bragging. I bet I could do better."

"You couldn't have won you know."

"Sure I could! If I Kattobingu—"

"You don't get it do you!" She yelled. "This isn't your world where anything is possible when you hope for it! This is our world! It's mean and it tears you down and nothing good happens from it! Don't try so hard on something you don't know how to do."

"You never know until you try."

"Nothing comes from hoping." She said. "You just get your dreams crushed on the way of trying when you realize there's no good coming from it."

Yuma stared at her. "Do you really think that way?"

Sarah turned away. "Come on. Class is probably starting now and you're making us late." She walked down the hall.

"Hey! Wait up!" Yuma yelled and ran after her.

_**-After School-**_

"Forget it Yuma!" Sarah yelled.

"But come on!"

"No!"

"Please?"

"No!"

"Oh come on!"

"I am not going to tell you what sumo bullfighting is!"

"But I want to know!"

"Fine!" She spun around. "It's where you sumo wrestle a bull! Happy?"

"Oh! That's cool! Can we do it some time?" Yuma asked.

"NO!"

The two teenagers and Astral were walking down the road. There weren't many people around today. Five minutes ago, when they were walking, they heard some boys talking about it and Yuma had asked what it was.

"Why would you want to wrestle a bull anyway Yuma?" Astral asked.

"Why? Cause it would be fun! That's why!"

Sarah sighed. "Are you really that clueless?"

They continued walking down the road, talking and arguing a bit. The a man wearing a suit walked up to them.

"Um, can we help you?" Sarah asked.

"Actually, you can." The man looked at Yuma. "By giving me your Numbers."

Sarah stared at him. "What?"

"You're a Numbers Hunter too?" Yuma asked.

"You are going to lose to me now." The man said.

"Like that'll happen!"

"Uh…." Sarah said. "What's wrong with you?"

"I'm collecting the Numbers. Is there a problem with that?"

"YEAH THERE IS!" She yelled. "Come on Yuma! Let's go!" She began dragging him past the man.

"I know how you can get back to your world."

Yuma stopped walking. Astral looked at the man.

"If you beat me, you might find out something."

"Fine!"

"What?! Yuma! That's crazy!"

"It's just dueling! I'm not gonna lose." Yuma smiled and gave a thumbs up. Sarah continued staring at him as he pulled out his D-Pad and D-Gazer. The man also pulled a D-Pad and D-gazer.

"How does he have one?"

"Oh hey, here!" Yuma tossed a d-gazer to Sarah, who caught it clumsily. "You left this in your room this morning!"

"B-But-" Sarah stuttered, "I don't have a d-gazer."

"Wha? Then how'd that get there?" Yuma wondered. "Oh well! I couldn't find your D-Pad so I just brought the d-gazer."

Sarah stared at him. "I don't have a D-Pad. All I have is that fake d-gazer I made for that anime convention downtown."

"Huh? Then where'd this come from?" Yuma cocked his head in confusion. "Oh whatever! Just watch our duel!"

"Not like I have any other choices." Sarah muttered and fingered the d-gazer. "Uh, how do you turn this on? I'm pretty sure you push this button and—" The d-gazer unfolded apart immediately and Sarah shrieked in surprise.

"Put it on." Astral suggested.

"R-Right!" She fumbled with it for a second before putting it over her eye. "This makes no sense…."

"Alright! Let's go!" Yuma yelled. "Duel disk, set!" He threw his D-Pad into the air and it attached itself to his wrist. "D-gazer, set!" He put the lens over his eye as it activated.

The man also took out a d-gazer and d-pad, and activated them.

"This seriously makes no sense." Sarah muttered to herself. "Why did we get ambushed by a weirdo man? Why the heck does he want Numbers? Why can't he just go buy booster packs like everyone else to try and get one? How does he know Yuma has Numbers? How does he know Yuma's not from this world? How does he have a way for Yuma to get back? Why does he have a d-gazer and d-pad? Why isn't there anyone else around? And how the heck are they dueling with AR vision and fancy duel disks in our world where everyone duels by sitting on the ground and CALMLY playing their cards?!"

"What are you talking about?" Astral asked. "Are you saying people duel differently in this world?"

"Uh, I'll tell you some other time." Sarah said. "You should probably help Yuma out with this duel."

"Yes. I feel there is something wrong in this duel."

"Oh you don't say. Did the fact that a random person you don't even know challenge you to a duel in a different world where dueling's considered stupid by most adults and three-quarters of the kids tip you off?"

"What?"

"Nothing." Sarah looked back at Yuma. "But I agree. There's definitely something wrong here."

"Yes. Now the question is, what?"

"DUEL!"

* * *

**Me: And now some more things are happening! A random adult challenges Yuma to a duel! This would be considered in Yuma's world but not so much in our world. Plus for some reason the duel disks and d-gazers work. This is gonna get serious…. (snickers)**

**Astral: Why are you laughing?**

**Me: I don't know! For some reason I find the idea of an adult challenging Yuma to a duel in our world funny!**

**Astral: (sighs) You have a strange sense of humour.**

**Me: I know! Just like how I think someone wiggling on the ground like a worm is funny!**

**Astral: (looks at her, sighs) **

**Me: You sigh a lot! It's funny! Anyway, review the chapter, tell me what you think the mysterious man's up to, and see ya all later!**


	5. More People More Head Injuries

**Me: Yo! Before we start, there's four things! **

**Astral: Number one. This splits from the original canon, so this takes place instead of Yugioh Zexal II. As a result, Yuma and his friends still don't know about people like Rei Shingetsu and Gilag and the Barian Force card. **

**Me: Number two, cause it's really getting confusing for me, I'm gonna call it Xyz monsters from now on. I'm still calling them overlay units though. And I'm still using the Japanese names of the Numbers. Cause it's supposed to be pronounced ik-seez in the Japanese version which can be either Exceed or Xyz and most of the new cards have Xyz so, yeah. I'm kinda confusing myself now.**

**Astral: Number three, we still don't own Yugioh Zexal or Yugioh Zexal II.**

**Me: Number four! It's a 5 chapter anniversary! We're gonna celebrate with cake and cookies and singing at the end! For now, enjoy!**

* * *

**Chapter 5: More People = More Head Injuries**

"DUEL!"

"I'll go first!" Yuma said. "Draw! I summon Gagaga Magician in defense mode and set two cards facedown. That ends my turn."

On the field, the magician wearing black and red with chains around him rose up, with two face down cards behind him.

"Oh my god." Sarah stared at Gagaga Magician on the field. "It's right in front of me. That. Is. AWESOME!"

"Huh?" Yuma looked over at Sarah, who was staring at Gagaga Magician in awe.

"It's so cool!" She yelled. "It's an actual Gagaga Magician in person!"

"Is this what you would call a fangirl?" Astral asked Yuma.

"Yeah, I think so." Yuma answered.

"This is awesome! Do something else!" Sarah yelled.

"I….can't."

"Why not?!"

"Cause I just ended my turn."

"Aw come on!" Sarah moaned. "I just got to see one thing!"

Yuma stared at her.

"Uh, sorry." Sarah said, stepping away. "It's just, I love this game! This is so cool!"

"It's my turn!" The man said. "Draw! I summon Evotile Odonto." A small flame dinosaur appeared onto the field. "And now Ondonto's effect. When it's summoned, I can summon another monster from my hand. I choose Evolsaur Elias!" Another dinosaur appeared next to the first.

"And now Evolsaur Elias's effect! When it's special summoned by the effect of an Evotile monster, I can special summon another level 6 Evolsaur monster from my hand. I choose Evolsaur Terias!" A third dinosaur roared as it rose next to the other two.

"Terias loses 500 attack points because it was summoned this way, but it doesn't matter! I overlay my level 6 Evolsaur Elias and my level 6 Evolsaur Terias! I build the overlay network with these two level 6 monsters! Xyz summon!"

A dinosaur egg rose from the ground with two overlay units flashing around it. "Evolzar Solda!" The dinosaur egg began cracking as a shining dragon-like dinosaur roared and fully emerged.

"Solda can't be destroyed by card effects as long as it has overlay units. Now Solda attacks Gagaga Magician!"

"I activate my trap Impenetrable Attack!" Yuma called. "Now Gagaga Magician can't be destroyed in battle, and since he's in defense mode, I take no damage!"

"Fine. I activate the spell Evotile Power. I sacrifice every Evotile monster on my field, and you take 500 points of damage for each!" Multiple blasts shot out at Yuma and Astral, who braced themselves as they collided.

**Yuma: 3500**

**Man: 4000**

"I end my turn by setting a card facedown." The man said.

"My turn! Draw!" Yuma said. "I summon Achacha Archer!" A nimble archer backflipped onto the battlefield and shot a flaming arrow at Yuma's opponent. "Achacha Archer's effect is that when it's summoned, you take 300 points of damage!"

**Yuma: 3500**

**Man: 3700**

"Now I activate the spell Plus Star 123! I'm making Achacha Archer a level 4! I overlay my level four Gagaga Magician and my level four Achacha Archer! I build the overlay network with these two monsters! Xyz Summon!"

A familiar white and gold mechanical figure rose from the ground with two white lights flying around it. "Appear! Numbers 39!" The form unfolded apart until the warrior stood and swung his swords out. "Kibou Ou Hope!"

"The Numbers has come." The man said.

A dark figure hiding behind a tree and watching the duel smirked. "So this is the Numbers of this Yuma. Let's see what you can do."

Sarah stared at the Numbers. "THIS IS AWESOME! IT'S HOPE! IT'S ACTUALLY HOPE! THAT'S AMAZINGLY AWESOME! THAT'S SUPER SPECIAL AWESOME!"

"What?" Yuma stared at her.

"Uh, it's a reference. Don't worry about it. But still, it's Hope! That's so cool!" She yelled.

"Sure?"

"Yuma, focus on the duel." Astral said.

"Right! Now I activate the spell Blustering Winds! This gives Hope an extra 1000 until my next turn!" Yuma yelled and held out the turn as Hope charged with energy. "Hope attacks your Evolzar Solda!"

"I activate my trap, Xyz Tribal!"

"No way! That's a new trap from Cosmo Blazer!" Sarah yelled.

"Cosmo Blazer?" Yuma looked at her with a confused expression.

"The newest booster pack that's gonna come out soon in November 17 in Japan, and January 25 for the rest of the world! Xyz Tribal makes it so that any xyz monsters with 2 or more overlay units can't be destroyed in battle! And if he has an xyz monster with 2 or more overlay units that battled a monster this turn, specifically your Hope, then Hope gets destroyed!"

"What?! Hope gets destroyed?!"

"If he battled his monster he does!"

"I remove one overlay unit from Hope to negate the battle!" Yuma yelled quickly.

"Yuma. The trap." Astra reminded.

"And I also activate my trap, Counterforce! You take the damage equal to the difference between Hope and Solda!" The trap card shot out a burst of energy at the man.

**Yuma: 3500**

**Man: 2800**

"Then I end my turn with two cards facedown!" Yuma said. "How do you know all these cards?" He asked.

"Well, I…. have a lot of free time. I spend it finding out stuff." Sarah said.

"It's my turn. Draw!" The man said.

"Let's see how this works." The person hiding behind the tree said.

"I activate the Rank-Up Magic, Barian's Force!" The man yelled as a strange crest appeared on his forehead.

"Barian?!"

"What is that card?" Astral wondered.

"Sarah! Do you know the card?" Yuma looked at Sarah, who was standing with her mouth open at the card.

"I don't know this card!" She yelled. "I don't know this card! I know all cards but I don't know this one! How is that possible?!" She unzipped her backpack and took out a laptop, flipped it open, and began typing on it furiously. "Nothing, nothing, nothing! Why is there no information about this card!"

"This is bad." Yuma scowled. "It doesn't seem normal. Barian's Force?"

"This card Ranks up my Exceed Monster and special summons a Chaos Exceed!" The man yelled as his dinosaur turned into a light and flew up into the sky. "I rebuild the overlay network with Evolzar Solda! Chaos Exceed Change!"

"What?!"

"He's able to do a Chaos Exceed Change?" Astral said.

"And it's not even a Numbers!" Sarah said.

"Appear now! Chaos Xyz: Super Evolzar Solda!" The same shining dinosaur from before descended onto the field, but it was bigger and its wings were more advanced. It roared, the sound echoing throughout the entire area. Three red glowing diamonds floated next to it. The sign next to it showed 3000 attack points.

"No way." Yuma stared at the monster.

"This is the power of Barian." The man said. "And now you're going to realize its power. I activate the effect of Barian's Force! When a Chaos Xyz was special summoned with Barian's Force, it can absorb all of the overlay units from an Xyz monster of my opponent's!" The three diamonds shot out energy at Hope, draining his energy as it took the light around him and turned it into an overlay unit for the man. "Chaos Drain!"

"He took Hope's overlay units?!" Astral exclaimed.

"So now I can't use Hope's effect!" Yuma said.

"And I'm not done! The monster who got its overlay units taken away loses 300 attack points for each overlay units!" Hope's power decreased down to 2200. "There's nothing you can do to stop Barian's Force!"

"No way!"

"Super Evolzar Solda can't be destroyed by card effects as long as it has overlay units. Solda's effect! By removing one overlay unit, all of my opponent's monster that were special summoned are removed from the field for this turn, and you take 1000 points of damage for each one!" One chaos overlay unit shone and was absorbed by the dinosaur, who roared out red energy at Yuma's Numbers. It disappeared in red light, leaving Yuma's field empty.

**Yuma: 2500**

**Man: 2800**

"Hope!"

"Now he's completely open! And Super Solda has exactly 3000 attack points! Don't let it hit you!" Sarah yelled.

"Super Evolzar Solda direct attacks you!" The dragon/dinosaur charged up the blast in its mouth and shot it at Yuma.

"I activate my trap! Damage Diet!" Yuma yelled. "Now the damage to me is halved!" He was thrown backwards from the blast, but still survived.

**Yuma: 1000**

**Man: 2800**

"And I activate my other trap Damage Repayment!" The second card on Yuma's field opened and a yellow beam shot out. "When I take battle damage that's over 1000, you also take it!"

**Yuma: 1000**

**Man: 1300**

"I end my turn with a facedown." The man said. "Now your Numbers comes back, but it doesn't matter. There's nothing you can do against the Barian World!"

"Barian World?!" Yuma yelled. "That Barian World?!"

"That would explain why the card is named Barian's Force." Astral said. "The Barian World is behind this."

"But still… how do I defeat that." Yuma looked at the Chaos Exceed on the man's field. "It can't be destroyed in battle or by card effects, and Hope doesn't have enough attack points!"

"Maybe not for now…. Yuma." Astral turned to Yuma. "There's only one way to match up a Chaos Xyz."

Yuma looked at him, then his eyes widened as he realized the plan. "Yeah!"

"It's my turn! Draw!" He yelled. "Kattobingu da, ore!"

"Hope, Chaos Xyz Change!" Yuma's Numbers began reverting back to its original sealed form, which disappeared into the ground. "The messenger that changes chaos into hope! Appear now!" A black and gold, more sleeker and more powerful version rose up, which began forming itself open until a stronger version of Hope appeared, with one overlay unit rotating around it. "Chaos Numbers 39! Kibou Ou Hope Ray!"

"Hope Ray! It's a Chaos Numbers!" Sarah cheered. "It's an actual Chaos Numbers in person!"

"A Chaos Numbers?" The man scowled. "But there's still nothing you can do!"

"We'll see. I activate Hope Ray's effect! By removing one overlay unit, Hope Ray gains 500 attack points, while your Solda loses 1000!"

"What?!"

The Chaos Numbers' attack points rose to 3000, while the dinosaur's shrank down to 2000.

"Kibou Ou Hope Ray! Attack Super Evolzar Solda! Hope King Chaos Slash!" The black and gold Hope slashed the dinosaur in half, blinding the entire field with smoke and wind from the explosion of the monster being destroyed.

**Yuma: 1000**

**Man: 300**

As the smoke cleared, Yuma was smiling. "And I'm not done yet! From my hand, I activate the spell Extra Blast! When my monster destroys one of yours, you take 500 points of damage!" The spell glowed as it appeared onto the field and shot a fireball at the man, who yelled and was blasted back.

**Yuma: 1000**

**Man: 0**

"Yuma won!" Sarah yelled. "He won he won he won!"

The crest on the man's head disappeared as the AR around them dissolved.

"Oh well." The person behind the tree watching said. "Note to self. Next time choose someone who can actually duel. This world is strange." Then it disappeared.

A little boy ran up to the man. "Daddy! Aren't we going home now?!" The little boy tugged at the man's sleeve.

"Right. Uh, what was I doing here?" The man looked around and focused on Yuma. "Do you know what I was doing?"

"What?! You were just dueling me and you had this Barian card and—"

"Dad! Why do you have my deck!" The little boy took the cards from his dad's hands. "And why do you have my d-gazer and d-pad?!"

"Wait, can I see that for a moment?" Sarah ran over and grabbed the two items from the boys hand and looked them over. "These are just toys!"

"Yeah! There my toys!" The boy took his toys back. "Meanie old lady."

"O-Old lady?! I'm thirteen!"

"That's old." The boy muttered.

"Why you little—"

"Come on daddy!" The boy tugged his dad away, and they were gone before Sarah could finish her sentence.

Sarah stared after them. Then she looked at at Yuma, who was looking at a card.

"I found this!" Yuma showed the card. It was Barian's Force.

"What?! Lemme see!" Sarah grabbed the card and stared at this. "Seriously, I'm not understanding anything anymore really. First you two show up, then a card I don't know shows up! What's next?!"

"I dunno," Yuma's stomach rumbled, "but after a duel like that, I'm hungry! Let's go to your home and get some food now!"

Sarah stared at him. Her stomach growled too.

"Uh….. sure."

Astral sighed as the two ran home.

_**-somerunningandsnackslater-**_

"So, is there any information about this card?" Yuma sat on the ground of Sarah's room while eating a bag of chips.

"I still can't find anything!" Ssrah was sitting on her bed typing on her laptop angrily. "This makes no sense! Plus how did the d-gazers and d-pads work?! And for some reason all of the information about you two have been erased!"

"It is most likely that when we came to this world, all information has been covered up by whoever brought us here to protect our identities." Astral hovered over her and looked at the computer screen.

"Yeah but it still doesn't make any sense!" She kept typing and going to different websites. "How did this happen!"

"Well, at least we have something to help us now." Yuma held up the Barian's Force card. "Maybe there's some hint to get back from this card."

Suddenly, the card glowed red and floated into the center of the room. "Wow! What's happening?!" Yuma jumped back.

"It's a portal." Astral said while looking at the card, which had opened up the red portal.

"So, just like that, you're going home?" Sarah asked.

"Let's try it out!" Yuma dived into the portal, but seemed to collide into something solid and fall back out. "Oww!"

"What happened?!" Sarah jumped up from the bed.

"I can't get through for some reason!"

"It seems this portal is one way." Astral said.

"So, something's trying to get here?" Yuma asked.

"That's most likely. But, what exactly are they?"

"Do you think they're from Barian too?!"

"That is likely."

Then a figure appeared from the portal and landed on the ground. He had dark blue eyes, dark purple hair, a purple jacket and blue jeans.

"S-Shark!" Yuma yelled.

Then a girl fell from the portal next. Her green hair was tied up into a bun on one side with a red ribbon, while the other side was free. She had brown eyes and was wearing a white and yellow t-shirt and a pink skirt. "Yuma!" She yelled happily.

"Kotori?!" Yuma stared.

Then finally, a teen in a large black trench coat with white pants with a hairstyle where his blond hair spiked up in a point at the back jumped out with a white robot behind him. "Orbital! Is this the right place?"

"Confirmed Kaito-sama!" The robot saluted.

"And Kaito too?!" Yuma shouted.

"Yuma. So this is where you ended up?" Kaito said, then looked at Sarah, who was staring at everything in shock. "Who are you?"

"U-U-U-Uh…" She managed to say before running out of the room. There was a banging sound on the walls, like someone was hitting something against them.

"WHAT THE HECK IS HAPPENING?!" The four of them heard her screamed.

* * *

**Me: And there's the chapter! Look who came to join the party! Kaito, Ryoga and Kotori! So now have karaoke to celebrate!**

_**Ima hajimaru no sa  
Zutto mune ni egaki tsudzuketeta sutōrī  
Kono omoi ta-gi-re!**_

_**Tatakau junbi wa dekiteiru**_  
_**Furueru mune mimi wo sumashite**_  
_**Zutto sono toki o matteiru**_  
_**Makeru koto mo atta kedo**_  
_**Sono tabi ni mata tachiagareta**_  
_**Mata tsuyokunareta**_  
_**Shinjireba ii sa**_  
_**Ima made yori mo "ima" o**_  
_**Genkai nantemon**_  
_**Yū ni koero**_

_**Ima hajimaru no sa**_  
_**Zutto mune ni egaki tsudzuketeta sutōrī**_  
_**Kono omoi ta-gi-re!**_

_**Kono te ni aru**_  
_**Kirifuda o tsuyoku nigirishimete**_  
_**Orenai hāto de yume ni mukaunda!**_

**Me: And I had to use some original cards, so these are the ones I created:**

**Evotile Power  
**Quick play Spell  
Tribute every monster on the field with Evotile in its name. Your opponent takes 500 points of damage for each monster.

**Chaos Xyz: Super Evolzar Solda  
**Rank 6 / Fire / Dragon  
Atk: 3000 / Def: 2000  
3 Level 6 Monsters  
This card cannot be destroyed by card effects while it has Overlay Unit.  
If this card is Xyz Summoned by Ranking Up "Evolzar Solda", it gains the following effect.  
● Once per turn: You can detach 1 Overlay Unit from this card; all of the monsters on your opponent's field that were special summoned are removed from play, and your opponent takes 1000 points of damage for each. At the end of your turn, the monsters that were removed from play by this effect comes back onto the field.

**Damage Repayment  
**Normal Trap  
When you take battle damage this turn that is over 1000, your opponent takes it as well.

**Me: Um, this is my first try listing out the original cards. If I have any mistakes, please help me out! Anyway, this is still a party! Review the chapter and you get a slice of every-flavour cake!**

**Astral: Every-flavour cake?**

**Me: It's a cake that has every flavour that you'd ever want in it!**

**Astral: . . . Sure.**

**Me: Yup! So, enjoy! Review! The updates will probably slow down some, cause school's picking up, but until then, see you again! Bye!**


	6. A Louder Than Usual Day

**Me: Hello there people! Sorry it took a while, I was busy and suddenly my teachers just dump all that homework on me! **

**Astral: We don't own Yugioh Zexal or Yugioh Zexal II.**

**Me: Yeah! That's right! Anyway, here's the chapter!**

* * *

**Chapter 6: A Louder Than Usual Day**

"So Kotori," Yuma asked. "How did you guys get here?"

"Because of this." Shark tossed Yuma the Emperor's Key. "Kaito managed to open a portal to you with this."

Yuma smiled and put the Key back around his neck. "Cool!"

"Anyway, Yuma. Do you know where this is?" Kaito asked. "My computer system went haywire when it tried to figure out what world this is. This isn't our world, or the Astral or Barian world."

"Really?" Yuma stared at him. "So, this really is a different world altogether?"

"You didn't know that when you came?" Shark looked at him.

"I didn't exactly come on choice! There was this light inside the Key and then me and Astral were suddenly here! Then Sarah said something about us being a TV show but that didn't make any sense at all but there was nowhere else to go so we've been staying here."

"Uhhh, okay, I think I'm better." Sarah said as she walked back into the room holding her head. "I think I'm starting to accept this craziness. Yeah, Yuma, Kotori, Shark and Kaito are standing in my room. Sure. I think I can live with this."

"How do you know us?" Shark asked suspiciously.

Sarah stared at him and sagged. "Oh gods do I have to explain all this again?"

"That is likely. After all, they want to understand as well." Astral said.

"Understand what?" Kotori looked at Astral, then at Sarah.

"Uh….."

_**-onelongexplanationlater-**_

"You expect us to believe that?!" Shark yelled.

"That makes no sense!" Kotori added.

"I know, I still don't get it!" Yuma said.

"You're not really helping…." Sarah said. "But yeah, you don't have to believe it, but that's what's happened. You guys are characters in a tv show here, which is why I know of you guys. And something happened that let you come here that I do not know about. So, that's about it."

"We've been searching a week for you and you turn out to be in this place!" Shark said. "And then you make up some weird excuse on how—"

"Wait," Yuma stopped him. "Did you say I was gone for a week?"

"He's only been here for a day." Sarah said.

"But it took Kaito-san a week to track down this place and open a portal here." Kotori said. "You're saying you've only been here for a day?"

"Perhaps time travels here differently than back in our world." Astral said.

"I still don't believe it." Shark said, his arms crossed.

Kaito was standing at the back. "Orbital! Run a scan on this world." He said.

"Confirmed!" There was some beeping noises, then a piece of paper printed from a slot in Orbital's middle. Kaito took the paper and read it over.

"She's right. We're in some sort of other world. Things are very different here." He said once he was done reading. "But we can go back to our world now that we've got Yuma. Orbital! Open the portal to our world again!"

"Uh…." Orbital began running through his circuits. "Well, Kaito-sama, it seems that—"

"You mean to say you didn't plan a way back?" Kaito glared threateningly at his servant. "That we're stuck here because of your incompetence?"

Orbital began sweating furiously.

"Oh, so this is where you've been." Sarah's mom walked into the room. "You'd better get unpacked after the trip to get here."

"What?" Sarah stared at her mom.

"Your cousins. They just came for a visit. Sorry we couldn't pick you up at the airport."

"Uh, don't worry about it!" Kotori said, smiling uncomfortably. "It was no trouble."

"Well okay. I've already gotten rooms ready for you." Then the mom walked out of the room.

"Cousins?" Shark looked at Sarah.

"I dunno! She said that about Yuma when he first came too!"

"Well this is annoying." Kaito said. "I'm going to go set up a lab here to see if I can find a way back." Then he walked out of the room.

"Um," Sarah stared at the remaining three and Astral. "I guess, you should get settled down until Kaito finds a way back."

They walked out of the room. None of them noticed the Barian's Force card disappear.

_**-skippingtodinnernow-**_

"Uh…." Eight people were sitting around the dinner table with a plate of spaghetti and meatballs for each person.

"What is this?" Yuma poked at the spaghetti with his fork. "I've never seem something like this before."

"It is strange." Kotori added.

"It's spaghetti and meatballs." Sarah said. "You eat it with the fork. It's good, so just don't worry about it."

"Don't you guys have Duel Fuel?" Yuma asked.

"Yuma. That's pretty rude." Shark hissed at him.

"Just eat it." Kaito said and began eating it. "It's still food."

The little girl sitting next to Sarah tugged at her sleeve. "Hey Sarah, did we always have this many cousins?"

Sarah sighed as she watched Yuma and Kotori argue over the food some more. "We do now, Ana. We do now."

"By the way," Sarah's dad turned to Kaito. "Why is there a whole bunch of new equipment in my office?"

"I need a place to set up and research. You can use the dining room." Kaito said as he ate his dinner.

"U-Uh—"

"Oh just go with it." Sarah said to her dad.

"Sure?"

"Hey these are pretty good!" Yuma yelled as he stuffed more into his mouth. "These Duel Noodles are pretty good!"

"Yuma, they're called Spaghetti!" Kotori scolded.

"I think they should be called Duel Noodles!"

"Where'd you come up with that name?!" Shark asked.

"Well, these are noodles, and I love dueling!"

Sarah stared at the arguing and smiled. "Wow. Just wow."

_**-linebreakofsomesort-**_

"It's not my fault I couldn't get the homework done!" Yuma complained as he, Kotori, and Sarah walked down the road to school. Kotori was going to transfer to their class so she would have something to do during the day. Shark had transferred to the nearby high school, and Kaito was at Sarah's house researching with Orbital a way to get back home.

"You were eating spaghetti all night and you say it's not your fault?!" Kotori said.

"Hey, they were good!"

"But you spent the entire night eating! You could have done something else!" Sarah said. "I honestly don't get how you stomach down all that food."

"It wasn't that much—"

"Move move move move move!" Someone yelled from behind them. They turned around just in time to see the person slam into Yuma, sending them both flying.

Yuma rubbed his head as he got up. "What was that for?!"

The boy got up too. He had orange hair that pointed to the back and purple eyes. "Oh! You're Tsukumo Yuma!"

"Wha?" Yuma stared at him.

"You're the winner of the WDC, Tsukumo Yuma!"

"The….WDC?" Sarah stared at him.

"Didn't you say the WDC didn't happen in this world?" Kotori asked her.

"It didn't."

"I'm a huge fan of yours!" The boy said excitedly.

"Uh, sure. I was just getting to school now and—"

"That's right!" The boy jumped up. "We can't be late for school! Come on!" Then he grabbed Yuma and they both ran down the street at top speed.

"Uh…" Kotori and Sarah looked at each other. "I guess we're on our own?"

"Yup." They continued walking to school.

_**-sometimelater-**_

"We have two new transfer students today." Sarah's teacher announced in class.

"Another one?" The girl sitting next to Sarah whispered to her. "There was one yesterday and now there's two today!"

"Yeah. We sure are getting a lot of weird transfers." She whispered back.

"The first is Tori Meadows." Kotori walked through the door to the front of the class. She bowed politely to everyone.

"Hello there. My name is Tori Meadows. I hope we can all be friends." She said. The boys in the class blushed.

"S-She's cute." Sarah heard a boy near her whisper.

"And our second transfer student—"

"Hello everyone!" The boy from before pushed open the door and yelled. "The great Yuma, winner of the WDC, has arrived!" He was carrying Yuma, who looked completely winded out.

"Y-Yuma?!" Sarah stared.

"What happened?" Kotori asked. "You two left before us and you arrive after us!"

"I didn't know where the school was, so I was around the entire city trying to find it!" The boy said, still smiling. "And now I finally found it!"

"Who are you?" The teacher asked, still in shock.

"Oh! Right!" The boy laughed and dropped Yuma as he scratched the back of his head. "My name's Rei Shingetsu and I just transferred here today!"

The entire class stared at him.

"Well," Astral said, "this is what I am assuming you call awkward."

_**-linebreakofsomesort-**_

"The plan _was_ to separate that Yuma and Astral from the rest of his friends by sending him to a distant world, weakening them." Someone said. "But they've made it here by themselves. Oh well, I can still make this work. With the power of Barian…"

**Me: And now Rei's joined the group as well! How's this gonna turn out?! I wonder!**

**Astral: You know.**

**Me: Nah, I'm guessing about Rei. But I figured might as well add him in! He's funny! Anyway, favourite, follow, review, see you again!**


	7. Plans, Dating, and a Violent Thug

**Me: Okay, quick warning before the chapter, there's actually some violence in here!**

**Astral: It is still rated T though.**

**Me: It's not that serious. Just to make things a bit more epic! Anyway, we STILL do not own Yugioh Zexal or II, so dang it!**

**Astral: I thought you were joking when you sent an email to TV Tokyo asking for the rights to Yugioh Zexal.**

**Me: Well I wasn't! And since they haven't replied to me, I still don't own it!**

* * *

**Chapter 7: Plans, Dating, and a Violent Thug**

"Okay, let me get this straight." Yuma said slowly. He, Rei, Kotori, and Sarah were standing around the lockers and trying to figure things out.

"You're a fan of mine from the WDC."

"Yup!" Rei nodded his head.

"And so you now transferred to our school?"

"Yup!"

"And you don't find anything strange about this world?" Sarah added.

"Nope!"

"Well, this is weird." Yuma concluded.

"He knows about you winning the World Duel Carnival even though it didn't happen in this world." Kotori said. "Maybe he's from our world too?"

"Hmm, I guess that could be too."

"This world?" Rei asked. "What do you mean by that?"

"Uh, don't worry about it!" Yuma said quickly.

"Well, okay! Well, just meaning well, this is awesome how I get to meet the great Yuma!" He said happily. "You've been my hero ever since the World Duel Carnival finals! It was amazing how you won!"

"Yeah, uh, thanks!"

"This still doesn't make much sense." Kotori said to Sarah.

"I know." She said back.

"Shouldn't we be eating lunch now? It is lunchtime, after all." Rei said.

Yuma's stomach rumbled. He laughed. "Yeah! We'll figure this out after lunch!"

"Isn't figuring this out more important than lu—"

"Come on Kotori, Shingetsu, let's go eat lunch!" Yuma interrupted Sarah as he grabbed the two and ran down the hallway. Sarah stared after them.

"I think Yuma forgot I have all the lunches." She opened her locker, took out three lunches, sighed, and walked after them.

_**-linebreakofsomesort-**_

Sarah walked into the lunchroom to see Yuma and Kotori talking in a table in the corner. Rei was nowhere to be seen.

"Hey, Yuma. You forgot that I had the lunches." Sarah said as she walked up to them and put the three bags on the table.

"Oh, so that's where they were!"

"Yuma, I told you we should have gone back to get them!" Kotori said.

"Ah well, it still worked out in the end!"

"Anyway, where's that Rei?" Sarah asked as she sat down next to Kotori.

"Oh, when he found out I didn't have my lunch, he ran to the lunch line! I guess he's buying lunch for us or something." Yuma shrugged. "Maybe…"

"Here it is!" Rei yelled as he ran to their table holding a tray of spaghetti, salad, and breadsticks. "Yuma-kun! I got the lunches!"

Then a little 6th grader accidentally walked into his path and they both crashed into each other. The lunches they were both holding went flying. Right in the middle of the table where the popular kids who had made fun of Sarah the other day. It splattered onto all of them very messily.

Yuma, Kotori, and Sarah stared at them as the girls shrieked and the boys yelled curses very loudly. They walked over to Rei very angrily and were about to give him a piece of their minds before a teacher came over and sent them to the office for cursing when it wasn't allowed on school grounds. The boys walked out of the lunchroom, followed by the upset girls. Rei apologized to the boy, then sat down at their table, smiling.

The four of them looked at each other, then burst into laughter.

"Well. That was entertaining." Astral said, smiling as well. "I suppose this is payback?"

"Yes." Sarah managed to say between laughs. "Yes it is."

_**-linebreakofsomesort-**_

"Okay, we gotta go home now!" Sarah said to Kotori, Yuma, and Rei.

"But can't we stay a bit longer? I wanted to duel with some people here!" Yuma whined.

"We'll be able to finish our homework on time even if we stay a bit longer, so I don't see any problem with it." Kotori added.

"Uh, we _really_ can't stay to duel!"

"Why not?!"

"Look, you'll understand eventually."

"But yesterday I dueled that man and even though he used that weird card, we still dueled just fine!"

"That's a special case."

"How?!"

Sarah paused. "I really don't know."

"So why don't we—"

"Hey there!" A boy came up to them, a group of his friends following behind him. "My name's Justin!"

"Hello." Kotori said politely.

"What's up, Justin?" Sarah asked.

"Well, uh…" Justin looked away and blushed. "Tori, I know we just met, but, WILLYOUGOONADATEWITHME?!"

Kotori stared at him. "I'm sorry, what?"

"W-Will you go on a date with me?" He asked slower, still blushing. Kotori blushed along with him.

"A date? Um, I don't know—"

"This is great! Isn't it, Kotori-san?" Rei said.

"It's just an afternoon on Saturday tomorrow! I'll come by your place! It's not that long! There's this new movie and, well, if you wanted to see it with me…."

Sarah looked at Yuma. He had a strange expression on his face, like he was getting irritated and annoyed by Justin. Maybe he just wanted to get this over with so he could go out and duel. Or maybe…

She immediately started snickering.

"W-What? What's so funny?" Yuma stuttered out.

"Oh….nothing…." She sang, looking away.

_ I just realized, technically what's happening right now is what's technically canon. So, with this kind of opportunity, I could use it to make Skyshipping canon! That'd be awesome!_

"What are you laughing about?" Rei suddenly asked from behind her.

"Ack!" She jumped. "Oh! Uh, nothing, nothing really!"

"Kotori, we have something to do tomorrow, remember?" Yuma suddenly interrupted. "There's no time for you to go see the movie!"

"Huh?" Kotori looked at him puzzled. "There is?"

"Yes there is now let's go home!" Sarah said, grabbed Kotori, and they walked out the door. Yuma and Rei followed behind.

"So…. I guess that means you're rejected man." One of Justin's friends said.

"Too bad, better luck next time!" Another said.

_**-linebreakofsomesortIjustdon'twanttouselinebreaksatthesep artsforsomereasonsoIusethese -**_

"So, why are you following us?" Yuma asked Rei as they walked home.

"Uh, just meaning well, for some reason, I don't really have a place to stay." Rei said sheepishly.

"Well…." Yuma looked at Sarah, who sighed.

"Fine, I'll see if he can stay with us." She said.

"Yes! Thank you!" Rei began shaking Sarah's hands up and down over and over.

"Y-You can stop that now!" Sarah said.

"Right!" Rei stopped immediately, still smiling.

"Anyway, I need to go buy some stuff for home, cause we're running out of stuff. You guys coming along?" She asked.

"Sure!" They all walked to the marketplace. Sarah bought the supplies, and they walked back to her house.

On the way, there was a carnival by the road. The sign said 'Fortune Telling'.

"Fortune Telling?" Sarah looked at it, confused. "I don't ever remember anything like this here before."

"It seems interesting, so let's check it out!" Yuma said cheerfully and walked towards it.

"Um… it doesn't really seem safe—"

"Don't worry about it! Besides, if anything happens, I can duel my way out of it!" Yuma said. "Let's go!"

"Oh what am I getting myself into…." She mumbled as she followed them to the weird carnival.

_**-insidethestrangecarnival-**_

"Why is it so dark in here?" Kotori wondered. "I can't see anything."

The inside was completely dark, with the only light coming from the open entrance.

"Some carnival this is. Hey, why don't we go now?" Sarah suggested nervously. "This place is really giving me the creeps!"

"You're scared of the dark?" Rei asked.

"No! It's just this place gives me the creeps!" Sarah said.

Then the entrance closed and the entire area was pitch-black.

"Which one of you closed the entrance?" Sarah panicked.

"Not me!"

"I didn't touch it!"

"Weird!"

"Okay, now I'm scared!" Sarah said. "Let's get out of here!"

"Good point!" Kotori said. They began walking around, trying to find the exit.

"Do you know where it is?" Rei called.

"Can't find it!" Yuma yelled back.

"I really want to get out of here!" Sarah panicked. She was trembling slightly. "It's too dark! It's too small!"

"We really need to get out of here!" Kotori said.

"You're not leaving yet." Someone said. The lights went on, and a gang of thugs were standing there across from them, grinning. "Not until we get what we want!"

"W-Who are these guys?" Yuma stepped back. Astral appeared next to him.

"They might be working for Barian. Be careful Yuma."

"Yeah." Yuma eyed them nervously. "I don't know who you guys are, but you're not keeping us here!"

"You're not leaving until we get what we want!" Another thug said.

"You're not getting my Numbers! Not through a duel you're not!" Yuma yelled. The thugs looked at him confused.

"Numbers?"

"Duel?"

"What's this kid talking about?"

"You think he's insane or something?"

"I am not insane! And what I MEAN is that I'm not gonna lose in a duel! And when I win, we're getting out of here!" Yuma said and took out his D-Pad and D-Gazer and tried to activate them. When they didn't work, he looked at it confused and tried again. Then he got frustrated.

"Why aren't they working?!"

"Aww, the kid's upset 'cause his toy doesn't work!" A guy said. "That's cute! Maybe we can sell those for some extra money!"

"What are you talking—"

"We're gonna hold you kids ransom so that we can get lots of money!" A thug yelled. "Ain't that obvious?!"

"What?! You can't do that?!" Kotori yelled.

"Oh we can do whatever we want!" Another one yelled and stepped towards Kotori and Sarah threateningly. "And we're gonna start with you two!"

"Oi!" Yuma stepped between Kotori and the thug angrily. "You're not doing anything!"

"Shut up you brat!" The thug roared.

Then suddenly, his fist collided with Yuma's face. The punch sent Yuma flying backwards until he hit the wall, knocking him out. Rei immediately ran over to him in a panic.

"Yuma!" Kotori screamed.

* * *

**Me: . . . . **

**Astral: . . . . **

**Me: . . . . I actually wrote it.**

**Astral: Yes you did.**

**Me: I got Yuma punched.**

**Astral: Yes you did.**

**Me: I'M SO SORRY! It's just this was the best way I could think of to have Yuma learn a bit more about this world! I'm sorry!**

**Astral: And now everyone reading this will have to wait until next chapter to see how this turns out. And if Sarah's plan goes through.**

**Me: You know, I bet people forgot about that as soon as we got to the end. But yeah, review, I'm sorry again, favourite, follow, see you again!**


	8. Relating Over A Card Game

**Me: Ahehe, hi everyone!**

**Astral: Yes, hi indeed.**

**Me: What?!**

**Astral: Oh nothing. You've just been slacking off like usual.**

**Me: Hey, tumblr's fun! Anyway, I do not own Yugioh Zexal. Yet…. (laughs evilly)**

**Astral: Oh no.**

* * *

**Chapter 8: Relating over a Card Game**

Yuma opened his eyes slowly. He was lying in a bed. A hospital bed? Maybe. He was holding onto something. It felt warm. Yuma tried to focus on who it was and smiled slightly. It was Kotori. He was holding onto her hand. Why was she looking so worried?

He looked around the room. Huh? Why was Kaito, Shark, Rei, Sarah, and Astral all looking so worried?

"Oi, what's with all the gloomy faces?" He tried to joke. "You're making me gloomy too!"

"Yuma! You're okay!" Kotori yelled tearfully.

"Of course I'm okay! Do you seriously think, whatever that happened, could keep me down?"

Kotori smiled a bit through her tears. "You're such an idiot!"

"What were you doing, walking into a place that's obviously a trap!" Shark asked. "Do you realize what could have happened?! This world is obviously more dangerous than ours, and you've never had to deal with gangs back in our world! You could've died!"

Yuma backed up slightly in the bed. "Sorry." He said, looking down. "I just—"

"Wasn't thinking like usual." Kaito said seriously. "I swear, you have rice balls up there instead of a brain."

"Stupid Touma!" Orbital added next to him.

"We were all worried so much about you!" Rei said. "You weren't waking up after half of those thugs ran away so we had to drag you all the way back to the market and find a phone to call the hospital!"

"Oh…" Yuma said. Rei had a black eye. Kotori's arms were bruised. Sarah seemed the worst of them. There were scratches all over her, still bleeding. Her left cheek was red and swollen, like someone had hit her there hard. She was still shaking slightly.

"Hey, what happened while I was out?" He asked. "How'd we get away from there?"

"Well….." Kotori and Rei both looked at Sarah, who was still shaking.

"Too dark….. too cramped…." She was muttering. "Too small…. Get me out…."

"We think she's in shock." Kotori said. "We don't know why though."

"She just kind of freaked out back in there." Rei said. "And then…."

_**-flashbackofsomesort-**_

_ "Yuma!" Kotori screamed._

_ "What's going on?" Astral yelled._

_ Sarah was shaking in the corner. "Too small…. Too dark…. My fault…. All my fault…."_

_ "We're gonna get a lot of money for these kids!" One thug said._

_ "Not again…. Not again…" She was holding her head and mumbling. "Please…. Not again…."_

_ "Stop this now!" Rei yelled, standing protectively in front of Kotori and Yuma._

_ "Shut up!" A thug punched him in the eye. Rei fell back, his eye throbbing in pain. Another one grabbed Kotori from behind hard and she yelled in surprise._

_ "Hey, what's wrong with the kid over there?" Another thug said and pointed at Sarah. "Looks like she's hyperventilating or something!"_

_ "Who cares! Let's just tie her up and get onto the other three!"_

_ "Not again…. Not again…. Not again!" Sarah yelled as a thug came near her. Suddenly, a knife slashed across the thug's stomach. He fell over unconscious, a large cut over his middle. _

_ "W-Wha—" Another one said before he was stabbed by her in the stomach as well. He fell down. The rest of them panicked and tried to attack. Some managed to hit her, but then got cut. In the end, they all ran out of an emergency back exit._

_ "S-Sarah?" Kotori said. "Are you okay?"_

_ Sarah was standing in the middle of the place, still shaking and panting and holding the bloody knife. She looked at Kotori slowly._

_ "Please," she said, her voice trembling, "let's get out of here…."_

_**-Aaaaand, flashback over-**_

"And that's what happened." Rei finished.

Yuma stared at him. He couldn't believe what he just heard.

"What?" He said intelligently.

Sarah got up and ran out of the room as soon as Rei finished. The door slammed shut and the room was quiet.

"What do you think is wrong with her?" Kotori asked.

"She seems to have some sort of fear towards the dark and enclosed spaces. It is possible she is nyctophobic and claustrophobic." Astral said.

"What does Santa Claus have to do with small dark places?" Yuma asked.

Kaito sighed. "Claustrophobia is the fear of small and enclosed spaces. Nyctophobia is the fear of the dark. Why though, that's a completely different matter."

"Shouldn't we ask her parents to see if they know anything?" Kotori asked.

"The hospital phoned them. They said they were too busy to come." Shark said.

"But they're her parents!"

"And that doesn't change the fact that they refused to come just because of their work."

"They apparently value their work over her." Kaito added.

"It seems both of her parents are very important computer businesspeople." Orbital said. "So they have to work most of the time."

"That would explain part of it." Kaito said.

"Yuma." Astral started. "Why did those men back then not duel? It seems they did not know how to? How is that possible?"

"Well, that's, uh…"

"You haven't realized yet?" Shark said. "This world and ours main difference?"

Yuma stared at him. "No not yet."

"The main difference _is_," Kaito explained, "that this world doesn't duel."

"What?!"

"At school today, nobody knew who I was." Shark said. "At first, I thought it was because of that fake name Sarah made me use. Then I realized. It's just a game in this world. Nothing else. People settle things through real fighting here, as if everything is a gang to fight in."

"That's terrible." Kotori said.

"That makes no sense!" Yuma said. "Dueling is everything! How can it not be important here!"

"That would also be why Sarah doesn't carry her d-gazer around and takes a knife instead of her deck. I saw it at home." Kaito said. "Her deck's covered in dust. She barely uses it. But then, a knife is still a pretty violent act."

"Excuse me?" A nurse walked into the room holding a clipboard. "I've come to check on Mister Yuya Tsukune. Could you all please exit for a while?"

"Sure." Kaito nodded as he and the others walked out back to the waiting room.

Kotori fidgeted in her seat. She stood up. "I'm going to go look for Sarah."

"This hospital is huge. It'll take forever to find her." Shark said.

"I think I know where to look." She answered and ran down the hallway.

Kotori had a pretty good idea where Sarah was. Most people would hide in a place that was small and dark, away from others. But then, judging from how she had reacted when they were trapped inside those thug's trap, there's no way she would go there.

Kotori ran into the stage room, where doctors would sometimes visit to see others demonstrate new methods for patients. It was huge and brightly lit. She looked around.

Sarah was hiding and crouching behind the closest chair to the door. Kotori went over and touched her shoulder. "Are you okay?"

Sarah looked at her slowly. ". . . Nah, not so much."

Kotori looked at her. She suddenly looked really tired, like everything was beating on her. "You know, carrying a knife around is dangerous. I'm not sure about this place, but back home, you could get in lots of trouble for having one."

"I don't want to get trapped again." Sarah said. "I was tied up and stuck in a little broom closet for 20 hours once. Nobody came looking for me for that long. It was just a coincidence that the janitor needed some supplies from it and happened to unlock the door. I don't want to get caught by the kidnappers again. So I carry it around."

Kotori thought about it. Being stuck in a small, dark broom closet for 20 hours. No wonder she was scared of small spaces and getting trapped in them.

"I liked dueling. It was fun." Sarah continued. "Except nobody would play with me. I made a deck once, then couldn't play with it, so I left it somewhere. I don't remember where. I'm no good at anything really."

Kotori didn't know what to do. She wasn't a person who knew how to take care of mental trauma or social problems. She was only a supporter to others. She was always stuck on the sidelines and could only cheer others on.

"Hey, why don't you teach me how to duel sometime." Kotori said. "Then we can duel each other. You can also duel Yuma and Shark and Kaito-san too."

Sarah looked up at her in shock. Then she smiled slightly. "Sure."

Kotori held out her hand. "Come on. Time to go back."

Sarah took the hand. Kotori helped her up and the both walked back to where Shark and Kaito and Rei were waiting. Yuma was also with them. He noticed them and waved them over.

"They said I'm better now!" Yuma said, smiling. "So we can go back home now!"

"Yeah." Sarah nodded. "Let's go now. Before anything else happens."

_**-linebreakofsomesort-**_

". . . and then after all that, you just end your turn!" Sarah finished explaining to Kotori. The two girls sat in Sarah's room, surrounded by piles of different cards.

"Oh! And that just keeps going back and forth until someone's lifepoints reach zero, right?" Kotori asked.

"Well, there are some other ways to win other than lifepoints reaching zero. Exodia would be an example. Get all five pieces of it into your hand and you automatically win, no matter what! Plus there's deck destruction as well. If you run out of cards in your deck, you automatically lose anyway. And a few others, like Ouija Board." Sarah said, holding up the cards she said as she spoke.

"Still, you have a lot of cards here!" Kotori said and picked one up. "This is Obelisk the Tormenter! Yuma said it a one of a kind card used only by Yugi Moto, the first King of Games!"

"Yeah, except it's not so rare in our world. You can buy it online at some websites." Sarah said. "So, you know what kind of deck you want to make? You can choose from any card here!"

"Really? Thanks!" Kotori looked through the cards and took one. "How about this one!"

"Little Fairy?" Sarah looked at the card and smiled. "It kinda suits you! Bit like my deck!"

"What kind of deck do you use?" She asked.

"Ahehe…. Anyway, we don't have working duel disks or d-gazers, so we just put the cards on the ground to duel. Or a table if we have one."

They both heard whispering from outside the door.

"Do you think we should let them in?" Sarah asked.

"Yeah. Otherwise they'll be there the entire day!" Kotori answered.

Sarah sighed, got up, and opened the door. Yuma and Rei burst in.

"Woah! You have Slifer the Sky Dragon!"

"Yuma-kun! There's also the three Sacred Beasts!"

"To think you'd have this many cards." Shark said as he also walked into the room.

"I have free time. I need to use it on something." Sarah said and turned to look at Yuma and Rei, dancing in the middle of all of the piles of cards.

"Oh cool!" Yuma yelled and took another one. Then he tripped on a stack. Which caused another one to fall over. And another. Everyone else stared as every neat and organized stack of cards the room fell over and scattered everywhere.

Sarah stared as all of her hard work organizing every card was ruined in less than 5 seconds. She took a deep breath. "YUUUUUUUMAAAAAAAA!"

* * *

**Me: Well, next chapter's gonna be fun! And also I decided to add some Skyshipping in this fanfic, so it's gonna be FUN!**

**Astral: Oh no.**

**Me: It's gonna be REALLY FUN!**

**Astral: Why?**

**Me: Cause it's fun shipping those two together! Anyway, review, favourite, follow, eat some chips and salsa, and hope it's better than my mom's cause she was buying salsa this weekend for nachos, didn't look at the label, and accidentally took extra-hot. Let's just say all the firemen and fire trucks and water in the world were not enough to hold down all that heat I was feeling in my mouth.**

**Astral: (sighs)**


	9. EXTRA! Saturday Morning TV!

**Me: Hey! How ya doing! Welcome to the ninth chapter of this story! I am your sort-of host Tsukuyomi-chan! And this is my sidekick Astral!**

**Astral: Since when am I your sidekick? And what is a sidekick?**

**Me: Basically, it's the person on my side, so you're not that important cause you only help! You don't do much!**

**Astral: . . . **

**Me: Yeah my explanation sucks I know. Um, reviewers! Please help me explain what a sidekick is! Also, I do not own Yugioh Zexal!**

**Astral: What happened to we?**

**Me: Oh silly Astral! Sidekicks don't need to get mentioned!**

**Astral: . . .**

* * *

**Chapter 9: EXTRA! Saturday Morning TV!**

At six-thirty in the morning on the next day, which was Saturday, Sarah quietly crept down the stairs. Everything was completely silent in the house, and it was still dark outside. She snuck into the tv room, opened the mini-fridge in the corner, took out a giant bag of barbeque chips, and sat down on the middle large couch, with two empty couches around her.

"What are you doing?"

"ACK!" She jumped and turned around, to see Kaito standing there. "What the heck?!" She whisper-shouted.

"I heard footsteps so I came to see what it was." He said matter-of-factly.

"Well tell me about it before you scare me to death next time!"

"That was my way of telling you that I was here."

Sarah stared at him. She sighed.

"So why are you up so early?"

"I wake up every Saturday morning early so I can watch Saturday cartoons."

"Oh. So what's on?" He said and sat on the other couch in the room.

She stared at him again. "You're staying?"

"I see no reason to go back to sleep now."

"That's right!" Orbital beeped from next to Sarah, who jumped again.

"What the heck?!" She yelled again.

"We've come to observe what goes on in this world's television system!" Orbital said as he rolled into the room next to Kaito.

"Yeah. It should be interesting." Shark said as he sat on the same couch as Kaito did.

Sarah stared. "Is everyone here?!

"Not yet…" Kaito started.

Kotori yawned as she walked into the room wearing a pair of pink pajamas. "What's going on down here?"

"Yeah. Who wakes up this early in the morning?" Yuma yawned.

"It seems to be some sort of gathering Yuma-kun." Rei said. He didn't seem to be sleepy at all.

"A gathering? What are you doing?" Yuma asked, suddenly not sleepy anymore. He ran and jumped onto a couch. "Watching tv? I wanna watch with you guys!"

". . . Now everyone's here." Shark finished.

"Be quiet!" Sarah hissed, making a shushing motion. "If my parents wake up that'll be a disaastor! They don't know that I do this!"

"How long have you been doing it?" Kotori asked as she and Rei both sat on Yuma's couch.

"Seven years."

"And they haven't caught you yet?" Shark said.

"Nah. Anyway, refreshments are in there if you want any." She pointed at the mini-fridge. "Today's a Zexal marathon—"

"Zexal?!"

"U-Uh, you see," Sarah began to explain, trying to ignore the staring at her, "the show that you guys are in over here is called Yugioh Zexal, and they're having a marathon of episodes today, starting right now!"

She grabbed the remote, turned on the TV, and flicked it to a channel. The familiar scene of Yuma and Astral waiting outside their house for Yuma's heartpiece to come played.

"Hey! It's me!" Yuma said and pointed at himself happily while munching on some chips. "I'm on TV!"

"That is very strange." Astral said, floating next to Sarah's couch.

When Yuma and Astral started talking, the Yuma in Sarah's house began laughing like crazy. Kotori, Rei, and Shark laughed some too. Even Kaito snickered slightly.

"What's wrong with my voice?!" Yuma choked out, spilling chips everywhere with his shaking from laughter. "It's so, so, I dunno what it's called but it's so funny!"

"O-Oi! Stop spilling my precious chips!" Sarah yelled.

Then came the scene where everyone at school was happy about the WDC coming up.

"Oh yeah! Just saying, but Tetsuo's name has been changed to Bronk. Class President, or Takashi's been changed to Caswell. Tokunosuke's Flip, and Cat-chan's, well, Cat." Sarah said.

"W-What?!" Kotori choked on some of the chips she was eating with Yuma. Beside her, Yuma laughed like a maniac.

"Oh that is good! That is good! Just wait until I tell everyone back home about it! Ha! That'll be real good!" He laughed.

They got to the scene where Yuma just found out how he didn't have a heart piece and was running all Heartland Tower in a panic. Sarah was laughing.

"You, you, you look, so, ridiculous!" Sarah managed to say between laughs and imitated Yuma's expression. "It's just so weird how you run like that!"

"Hey! I was upset! I didn't get my heart piece!" Yuma yelled back.

Shark had gotten himself a pop, and when it got to the scene when he confronted IV, he spit out the juice he just drank.

"W-What the hell?!" He yelled.

"Oh yeah, IV's name has been changed to Quattro. Just to let you know." Sarah said to him. "Also, III's been changed to Trey, and V's been changed to Quinton."

"III's Trey?" Yuma said.

"V. V's name, got changed, to, Quinton?" Kaito said to himself quietly.

"And," Sarah held up her finger. "Tron has been changed to Vetrix."

They all stared at her except for Rei, who looked around confused.

"Also, you're Reginald Kastle in here. That's where I got your alibi from." She continued. "Kotori, you're Tori Meadows."

"What about me?" Rei said, pointing at himself excitedly.

"Uh… You… haven't appeared in any episodes yet, so, you're just Rei Shingetsu."

"Oh." Rei looked disappointed.

"B-But, I'm sure you'll appear in some later episodes!" Sarah said, trying to cheer him up.

"Sure…" He still sounded disappointed.

The TV got to the part where Yuma was outside Heartland Tower and begged for a heartpiece.

"You were that desperate?" Shark asked.

"Hey, I didn't get my Heartpiece!" Yuma complained.

"I was embarrassed just being there with him." Kotori sighed.

"I wasn't that bad!" Yuma said back.

They get to the part where Yuma was pretending to die because he wasn't getting what he wanted. Kotori gave him an 'I told you so' look.

"Okay, I was pretty bad." Yuma agreed.

When it got to the part where Kaito, Mr. Heartland, Droite, and Gauche, the Kaito in Sarah's house stared.

"Oh, also, Droite's now Dextra, and Gauche's Nistro. And you're name's Kite Tenjo. Also, Haruto's Hart Tenjo."

Kaito stared at her. "Why. Just…. Why."

Sarah shrugged. "At least you get to keep your last name! I mean, look at Sharky! He got changed from Ryoga Kamishiro to Reginald Kastle!"

"Sharky?" Shark now stared at her as well.

"It just came out. I think it suits you!" Sarah shrugged.

Shark sighed.

Then the TV came to the part where Orbital 7 and Kaito were talking about Yuma and Astral.

"I am not an idiot!" Yuma protested. "And what do you mean I'm harmless except to myself!"

Kotori sighed. "Kaito-san actually has a point there."

"What's that supposed to mean?!"

"It means he values me more of a rival than you." Astral said to Yuma, smiling slightly.

"What?!" Yuma stared at him, and then at Kaito. "I can duel too!"

"That's, not really what I meant." Kaito said.

Yuma didn't say anything. He just sat there pouting. The TV went on to the part where Mr. Heartland came out and gave Yuma his Heartpiece.

"You… called Mr. Heartland dude? And then Mrs. Heartland?" Shark stared. "And you still expected to get a Heartpiece?

"No wonder he was mad when he came back in." Kaito shook his head in disbelief.

Then it came to the part where Yuma, Astral and Kotori talked.

"Beg like a dog?" Kaito stared at Yuma. "And what's wrong with my new name?"

"It wasn't me! It was the people who made this!" Yuma yelled.

"But still," Kotori smiled, "you still promised to win and you did!"

"Yeah…" Yuma smiled too.

"They lllliiiiiike each other!" Sarah giggled.

Yuma and Kotori's faces both turned red. "We do not!" They both yelled at the same time.

Sarah just giggled and turned away. "Sure you don't!" She sang. Then the TV showed Kaito watching over Haruto. "Aww it's so sweet how you care about Haruto that much!" She squealed to Kaito.

Kaito looked uncomfortable. "They show everything?"

"Everything that's important and won't spoil too much of what happens later on!"

"Wait." Yuma began thinking. "If they show almost everything, then does that mean—"

"They showed the part where you were on the toilet and sort of explaining the human body to Astral." Sarah said.

Yuma stared. "Oh my god they showed that too. Everybody saw me doing my business!"

"W-Well, they didn't show that much…"

"Everybody still saw it!"

Sarah laughed nervously. "T-That's not really the point here…."

The TV advanced to the next day, with Mr. Heartland explaining all of the rules for the WDC. They watched as everyone on screen ran off to their own duels and Yuma getting smacked in the face by the soccer ball. Sarah and Kotori burst into laughter.

"You got smacked so hard! And he has a British accent!" Sarah laughed.

"It figures only you would get smacked in the face with a soccer ball like that." Shark said. "You're the only one absentminded enough."

"Hey!" Yuma yelled as Kotori giggled slightly.

"Anyway, the episode's over!" Sarah said when the ending credits played. She stretched and stood up. "Whatdya all think of it?"

Yuma, Kotori, Astral, Shark, and Kaito all stood up and looked at her. "Weird." Then they all walked out, well, Astral floated, of the room, Orbital following Kaito.

"I thought it was cool." Rei said, not understanding what was going on.

_**-linebreakofsomesort-**_

_ As far back as I can remember, I've been scared of everything. People, spiders, the dark, swimming, small spaces, just about everything. And people made fun of me because of it, because it was easy to make fun of a girl who was scared and wouldn't stand up for herself. I figured it would never change, that I'd just one day disappear from everyone's lives and nobody would notice at all. Nobody's seemed to notice me at all. Until now._

_ All the sudden, the life I once had has been thrown into a world where just about everything's possible. My favourite anime characters somehow coming into my life, and they sure make a mess of it! Yuma doesn't seem to understand anything here. Kotori's actually really cool! Astral's okay, in his own Astral way. Shark less scary then I imagined, and Kaito's, well, Kaito! There's honestly no words to describe him, he's just Kaito! And then there's Rei. I have no idea what to make of him, cause he hasn't shown up in any of the episodes, but he's somehow here. I guess he's also from Yuma's world. He's a strange person. But then, they're all strange in their own special ways._

_ I guess it's just weird how one day can change so much. They've been here for just 3 days and it made me change how actually saw things just because they were there! I've always been a bit scared of change, but I knew it would always come. I just imagined it would be the bad kind of change, not this kind. This kind of change is sudden, random, indecisive. There's no way for me to tell if the fact that they're now with me in my world is good or bad. It's such a strange problem that I don't know if it's ever gonna get fixed! _

_ But then, having them here, it's just so weird! I'm laughing with others, crying with others, getting annoyed with others, hanging out in groups, a whole bunch of things I thought I'd never be able to do are happening. Occasionally, I get this warm feeling in my heart that I haven't felt before. It really is a strange change of life._

_ I don't know why though, but, I think I like it!_

_**-linebreakofsomesort-**_

"Collect the Numbers, team up with the Number 39's Yuma, and save all of the worlds! Easy!"

"It's not that easy and you know that."

"Jeez One! Even if it's not easy we still gotta do it!"

"You still haven't grown at all."

"I've grown up some! Watching and going through all those worlds does that to you."

"Yeah, that happened…. Anyway we know the Barians are still going to go after the Numbers. We'll have to intercept them at some point."

"It's gonna take a while to build up enough power to travel to that world!"

"A week at least. Let's just hope nothing serious happens before that. When we get there, are you still using the name One?"

"Of course! Do you realize how they'd react if I told them who I really was! Anyway, just keep letting me borrow the name until the time is right! Hopefully, they won't find out at all and we came save everyone who's trapped!"

"Yeah. We need all of the Numbers' powers, including his. It's not going to be easy."

"It's never easy! That's why we're going to do it!"

* * *

**Me: Ahehe, Merry Late Christmas! I'll give a cookie to everyone who can guess which episode they watched, although with all those hints I'm pretty sure it's easy. So I guess a whole bunch of people are getting cookies today! It's not even a 5 chapter anniversary!**

**Astral: Just consider it a later Christmas present since she didn't get this up on the day. She got it 3 days late.**

**Me: I'M SORRY! I have other things to do! Anyway, review, and my sidekick and I bid you farewell!**

**Astral: You're still on the whole sidekick thing?**

**Me: You are my sidekick and that is final!**


	10. An Attempt To Make Skyshipping Canon

**Me: Hey! How's everyone doing! Welcome to the tenth chapter! Anyway, thanks for Light-Sakura explaining what a sidekick is to Astral!**

**Astral: I'm not your sidekick.**

**Me: You're Yuma's then! And Ying-Yang Yoh got the episode, so he gets a cookie! Anyway, I don't own Yugioh Zexal or characters, just this plot and the random OC Sarah who's about to try and get her OTP to come to life. Don't we all wish we could do that?**

* * *

**Chapter 10: An Attempt To Make Skyshipping Canon**

"Hey," Shark said, annoyed, crossing his arms in the seat on the back of the bus. He was wearing a huge black coat and a black top hat on his head that covered up his eyes. "Why do we have to do this again?"

"Shh! Just go along with the plan!" Sarah hissed at him. Her black hair was all stuffed in a detective's hat and she was wearing large sunglasses with a brown cloak that covered up every part of her body except for part of her face.

"I don't see how this is going to work." Rei said, also wearing a ridiculous disguise. "And they will definitely be able to tell it's us."

"No they won't! We're in disguise! We blend in perfectly! There's no way anyone'll tell that it's us!" Sarah said to him.

"You really think we're blending in?!" Kaito said, pissed off. He wasn't wearing his usual coat and was instead wearing a stupid pink-and-purple polka-dotted rain jacket that was too small for him. There was a blue baseball hat on his head, covering up his hair. "Everyone except for them on this bus is staring at us!"

Sure enough, everybody in the bus except for the bus driver and Yuma and Kotori, who were sitting a few seats up, were staring at the four kids wearing strange outfits.

"Well," Sarah thought about it, "at least we're disguised!"

"A disguise would be where nobody could tell that it's us and nobody would suspect us either." Shark said. "These clothes make it so that everybody's suspecting us!"

"I can't take this anymore." Kaito said and took off the stupid jacket and threw it out the window. "Orbital! We're leaving!"

There was no reply.

"Where's Orbital?" Kaito demanded.

"Oh, I made sure he wouldn't interfere." Sarah snickered slightly.

_**-meanwhile,backatSarah'shouse-**_

"You stupid girl! Let me out!" A mechanical voice yelled out from a closet in the basement. A 6 year old girl looked at the vibrating closet door curiously.

"Sis said there was a monster in here that would eat me if I let it out." She said slowly.

"Hey! Is someone out there?! Let me out of this stupid closet!" The voice yelled again. The little girl shrieked and ran out of the room.

She came back five minutes later with a plastic sword and shield, a poofy vest that apparently her armor, and a metal bucket on her head as a helmet.

"I'm going to protect our house from the monster!" She yelled.

_**-linebreakofsomesort-**_

"Yup, he's not getting here anytime soon!" Sarah nodded, satisfied with what she did. "So you're stuck here with us!"

"This is still a ridiculous plan." Shark said.

_**-3hoursearlier-**_

_"Okay! I call forth this meeting of us people!" Sarah called, standing at the front of the table. Sitting around it was Rei, Kaito, and Shark. Astral was floating on the side._

_ "What's this even about?!" Shark said, propping himself on one elbow on the table, looking annoyed and bored at the same time._

_ "No doubt it's going to be something stupid." Kaito said._

_ "I need to use the bathroom, so just meaning well, can we do this later?" Rei put up his hand and asked._

_ "QUIET!" Sarah yelled and sighed. "Jeez! Okay, here's the plan!"_

_ "See, told you it would be a stupid plan." Kaito said to Shark._

_ "You just said something stupid, you never said it was a plan." Shark said back._

_ "ANYWAY," Sarah interrupted. "I call this 'Operation Make Skyshipping Canon!'" She said as she took a huge chalk board with a pile of writing on it and pushed it to the front of the table proudly. At the top was the name of the operation in huge bold letters._

_ "What?" _

_ "I only understood half of those words." Kaito stated bluntly._

_ "Okay, basically, Skyshipping is the pairing between Yuma and Kotori." Sarah explained. "I am a Skyshipper, meaning I believe that Yuma and Kotori belong together! And canon is what happens in the show. So, it's basically like saying that Kaito and Haruto are brothers is canon. And since the real characters of the show are here, what happens here is canon!"_

_ "So you want to set up Yuma and Kotori together, literally making it official and 'canon'." Kaito said. "But aren't you just doing it because you like the idea of them being together?"_

_ "Oh come on it'd be great if they could realize it!" Sarah protested. "Besides, I ship other ones too! I ship both Anxietyshipping and Proctorshipping, which is DroitexKaito and DroitexGauche,"_

_ "What?!" Kaito yelled._

_ "and Determinationshipping, which is basically Cat and Takashi,"_

_ "Um, sure?" Rei commented._

_ "and Accidentshipping, which is Rio and IV!" She finished happily._

_ "WHAT?!" Shark yelled. "Rio and _IV_?! What kind of sick and twisted mind—"_

"_Oh you know he rescued her from the fire and that was totally romantic," she said dreamily, "but anyways! Be glad I haven't told you guys about Keyshipping, Photonshipping, and Sharkbaitshipping!"_

"_What's that?" Rei asked._

"_Oh, nothing at all!" She waved it off. "Anyway, here's what we do! I'm gonna tell Yuma and Kotori that we're all going to the movies! And then they'll go on the bus together, while we'll be at the back in disguise!"_

_ "Won't they wonder why we're not with them?" Kaito said. "It'll be pretty suspicious if only they're the ones going."_

_ "I'll _say_ that we're all going, and then tell them to go ahead of us because we have some stuff to do! And then later I'll phone Kotori saying it turns out we're not able to make it so they just have to go together!"_

_ "Isn't that the plan that friends use to get a girl and a guy together in those romance comedies?" Shark said._

_ The others stared at him._

_ "Rio made me watch a whole bunch of those with her!" He protested. _

_ "Uh, sure…. Moving on!" Sarah said after snapping out of her shock. "We're just gonna follow them around on their day to make sure nothing goes wrong."_

_ "Something always goes wrong on them." Shark began again. "Usually an interruption like a love rival or a kidnapper or something that causes trouble but in the end bonds them together more."_

_ The others stared at him again._

"_There were a whole bunch of romance movies she wanted to see!" Shark protested._

_They still stared at him._

"_It's true!"_

"_Sure it is." Kaito said sarcastically._

"_Are you saying I actually watch those because I want to?!"_

"_I didn't say anything like that."_

"_You obviously thought it!"_

"_See, total Challengeshipping!" Sarah said, smiling in a fangirl way to Astral and Rei, who nodded in agreement._

"_I see." Rei commented._

"_Don't talk about us behind our backs!" The two guys yelled at them._

"_You guys were totally asking for it." Sarah muttered. "But anyway, I've already explained the basic plan, so I'll just tell them about it and then we can start the operation!"_

"_Something always goes wrong on those though." Shark warned._

"_Oh please, this is real life!" She waved the comment off. "There's no way anything'll go wrong! It'll be just fine!" Then she walked out of the room. "I dismiss this meeting!"_

"_Finally." Kaito muttered._

_ "Um," Rei put up his hand again._

_ "Bathroom's down the hall." Sarah pointed in a direction and Rei raced off that way._

_As the others exited, Astral was left in the empty room, looking at the chalkboard covered with childish drawings of the plan. "I have a bad feeling about this."_

_**-flashbackend-**_

"Oh it'll work out in the end!" Sarah said. "Anyway, we're here!"

The bus stopped off at a station and everyone exited. The four trailed Yuma and Kotori into the large movie theatre.

"How do you think think they're getting along?" Rei asked.

"Let's hope well, or else this entire plan would have been a waste." Shark said.

_**-yeahanotherlinebreakovertoYu maandKotori!-**_

"Hey Yuma?" Kotori turned to Yuma as the two of them walked into the movie theatre.

"Hm? What is it Kotori?" Yuma replied absentmindedly while looking at all of the posters of movies they could watch. "I've never even heard of all of these!"

"There's these four suspicious people who've been following us all the way here." Kotori said and pointed at the four outside, who immediately hid in a bush out of sight.

"Oh it's probably nothing. They probably just want to see a movie too."

"Yeah, that's probably it. Anyway, what do you want to watch?"

"Oh! Let's go watch that one! Or that one! Or that one!" Yuma began pointing at each poster in turn.

"We have to decide on only one—"

"Hey Kotori! Do you have extra money for popcorn?!" Yuma yelled as he ran to the snack booth. "How about drinks?!"

Kotori watched him run around excitedly. She sighed inwardly. Honestly, she was a bit happy when Sarah had called her and told her that the rest of them couldn't make it. Some alone time with Yuma. But then, Yuma could be _really_ thick sometimes. She doubted he would ever really realize her feelings.

"Kotori, you coming or not?!" Yuma yelled at her cheerfully, snapping her from her thoughts.

"I'm coming! Slow down a bit!" She said as she ran over to him. He already had money out and was buying popcorn and drinks for the both of them. The brown-haired girl at the counter handed him the bag of popcorn and two cokes for him as Kotori arrived. Yuma handed Kotori her drink.

"Have fun at the movies with your girlfriend!" The counter girl called out to them. Both of their faces immediately turned red from embarrassment.

"S-She's not my girlfriend!"

"Yuma is not my boyfriend!"

"Sure sure enjoy your movie!" She shooed them off, then as Yuma left, she waved Kotori to come over. She came over nervously.

"What?" Kotori asked. The counter girl leaned down and whispered to her.

"Don't worry, he'll come around."

Kotori's face turned even redder with her blushing. "He's really not my boyfriend!"

"Mmhm! Now go enjoy your movie with him! And try to hold his hand at some points!" She patted Kotori on the shoulder and then pushed her away to Yuma. Kotori stumbled, then looked at her weirdly before catching up with Yuma.

The counter girl sighed before pulling off her wig. Black hair tumbled out and Sarah looked behind the stand. "Okay, it's good you guys!"

Kaito, Shark, and Rei walked out. "The guards and employees have all been taken care of." Shark said. Behind them was a pile of people bound and unconscious.

"Uh…. I was hoping you'd just lock them away somewhere… but this works too!" Sarah shrugged.

"Was that really necessary?" Kaito asked.

"I really wanted to do that!" She replied.

". . . so it wasn't?"

"Yup!"

Kaito stared at her, and sighed.

"Anyway, what are we supposed to do now?" Rei asked. "And what are we supposed to do with them?"

"Hmm….." Sarah smiled evilly. "I got an idea…."

_**-10minuteslater-**_

"Poke a person! Poke an important person! Just 5 bucks!" Sarah yelled at the front of the movie theatre. All of the unconscious people were sitting in chairs and dressed up in outfits to make them look like famous people, like George Washington and others. There was a line up to her, and people would give her five bucks, then have fun poking the unconscious people.

"This is your idea?" Shark said, looking back and forth between the unconscious people and her.

"I'm earning money, so what's the problem?" She waved the stack of five dollar bills in her hand at him. "Oh cheer up! I'm buying more cards later on, and I'll buy you guys some coffee at Starbucks or something!"

One of the people sitting on the chairs began to wake up. "Wha—" Shark hit a spot on his neck and he fell back unconscious.

"This is a ridiculous idea." Kaito said. "And why are these people actually paying to poke unconscious people? It's just plain stupid! Shouldn't the person actually be awake so that the people can see them react?! This is so stupid!"

Sarah stared at him. She took out a roll of duct tape.

**_-10moreminuteslater-_**

"Poke a Kaito! Poke a Kaito! This person's name is Kaito and you can poke him for five bucks!" Sarah called. Kaito was tied up and restrained to a chair behind her by at least 5 rolls of pure duct tape. Shark facepalmed behind her, and Rei looked at Kaito tied up curiously.

Kaito screamed from underneath all of the duct tape, but it was muffled from the stuff over his mouth. Some people would pay her the money, then poke him in the stomach and laugh at him not being able to do anything.

"I feel sorry for him." Rei said to Sarah.

"Oh whatever. I'll buy him a coffee later or something." Sarah waved it off. "Anyway, I gotta go. Be back in a while." Then she walked back into the movie theatre.

Inside was Yuma and Kotori arguing about something. They were pretty mad and yelling at each other, and the arguement was getting pretty heated, which was bad. Sarah stopped near the entrance to listen

"You're so immature!"

"How am I immature?!"

"Everything about you is immature! I can't believe it! You don't understand anything!"

"You girls keep on going on about your feelings! How am I supposed to understand it?!"

"Maybe you should actually listen and try Yuma!"

"Maybe you should actually see if I care first Kotori!"

"AARGH!" Sarah watched as they both stormed off to opposite ends of the movie theatre to get away from each other.

"Um… okay this is not part of the plan…." She said to herself as she went into the washrooms and went into a stall. "Oh jeez what am I supposed to do about this…."

"Yuma, oh Yuma's so annoying sometimes!" She heard from outside and peeked through the slit in the stall door. Kotori had just walked in and was splashing her face with water. "Why couldn't Sarah and Rei and the others come… Yuma just doesn't understand anything sometimes!"

Sarah wondered if maybe she should go out and try to make Kotori feel better. But then Kotori would probably freak out and wonder why she was there and then her plan would be completly ruined. Nah, she'd stay right where she was. Spying on Kotori from the washroom stall.

Then a weird man all bundled up in black clothes came in and Sarah mentally freaked out. There weren't supposed to be men in the girls washroom. And he seemed to be heading right for Kotori. She didn't realize though, cause she was still mumbling about Yuma and washing her face. This was bad. What if he was a pervert? What if he was after Kotori?! Oh my god she had read fanfiction of what would happen when a man came into a public washroom when there was only one girl there! She really needed to do something!

The man tapped Kotori's shoulder. "Excuse me?"

"Yes, what?" Kotori turned around, then was about to yell when the man took a card out. It began to shine red and Kotori stopped.

"Barian World…." Kotori said, as if under some spell.

"Oh…." Sarah stared at them from behind the washroom stall door. "This is bad…."

* * *

**Me: Aaaaaand, next chap's gonna have a duel, so I'll be working on it now! Another duel….**

**Astral: You're the person who decided to write a fanfiction for a fandom that solves all of its problems with a card game. **

**Me: Oh well, see ya in a while! Review, like favourite, follow, subscribe, eat some cake man it's our tenth chapter anniversary! KAREOKE!**

_**Kimi wa sugu atama ni "dōse..." to tsukeru  
Sore wa akirameru koto yokan shiteita no kai?  
Kimi wa jibun no yume o "murida." to warau  
Sore o warau koto mo dekinai boku wa okashī kai?**_

_**Boku o sasaeta "uta" o kondo wa boku ga kimi ni utau ban dakara**_

_**Koko ni sengen shiyō ka**_  
_**(They must be felt with the heart.)**_  
_**Boku no inochi aru kagiri wa kimi no chīsai chīsai mikata de iru koto o**_  
_**Mimi o suma se te goran**_  
_**(They must be felt with the heart.)**_  
_**Shagami kon da machikado**_  
_**Hora, kono kyoku o todoke yō**_

_**"Boku wa kibō tōri no michi o susumu"**_  
_**Dore dake hantai saretemo oshi kiri mezashi ta**_  
_**Boku wa ima kōshite koe hibika se**_  
_**Kimi o kokoro hagemasu koto no dekiru kenri o te ni shita**_

_**Sōdan shita yoru mo sono me no oku ni wa kotae ga chiratsui teru**_  
_**Kimi wa tada senaka oshi te hoshī dake nandarō natte**_  
_**Ima wa muku de, ima wa muchi na, ima ga ugoku**_

_**Koko ni sengen shiyō ka**_  
_**(They must be felt with the heart.)**_  
_**Boku no inochi aru kagiri wa kimi no chīsai chīsai mikata de iru koto o**_  
_**Sukoshi no misu nante kakikeshite yareru gurai no**_  
_**(They must be felt with the heart.)**_  
_**Ātisuto ni naru kara**_

_**Hora, suki ni yareba ii**_

**Me: Like I said before, review and all that! You can have cake and brownies today! Bye!**


	11. A Duel For Love?

**Me: Well, this is long overdue. Sorry about the wait and all that. I'm getting slower and slower, jeez! But then I got a huge pile of stuff to do, so, sorry again! Damn it's been like 2 freaking months!**

**Astral: Duels are not your thing.**

**Me: Procrastination is though! I'll definitely finish the series, I just don't know how long it'll take! Yugioh Zexal is the official property of TV Tokyo, I think. I don't own the rights to it.**

* * *

**Chapter 11: A Duel... For Love?**

Sarah bolted out of the movie theatre so fast she hit Shark and they both fell down the steps outside.

"OW!" Shark yelled as he got up. "What was that?!"

"No time to explain! Yuma's most likely in trouble!" Sarah yelled as she ran over to Kaito and began pulling the duct tape off of him roughly without thinking. She barely noticed him yelling in pain from ripping duct tape off of his skin.

"Yuma-kun is?" Rei asked from beside her.

"Yeah! Kotori got all Barianed and now most likely she's gonna duel Yuma for his Numbers and all that!"

"Wait a second." Shark interrupted her speech. "Kotori can't duel."

"Oh, I taught her how the other day. She now has her own deck and everything."

Shark stared at her. "You have horrible timing."

"WHY DID YOU TIE ME UP AND HAVE PEOPLE POKE ME?!" Kaito suddenly yelled at her. She took two steps away from him.

"Wow your voice is loud!" Is what she replied. Kaito glared at her furiously.

"I've been POKED AT for AN HOUR!"

"Look, normally I'd be extremely scared about how Tenjo Kaito is yelling at me, but now's not the time! We gotta warn Yuma and get Kotori back to normal!"

"The only way to break someone free of Barian's control is to defeat them in a duel." Shark said. "We had to defeat Dr. Faker by dueling him and winning, so right now, Yuma has to beat Kotori."

"That shouldn't be too hard, would it?" Rei asked. "Kotori-san's still a beginner, and Yuma-kun's the WDC champion."

"Yeah, but being controlled by Barian does do strange things to you and your dueling." Shark replied.

"AAHH WHY ARE YOU STILL TALKING!" Sarah interrupted them. "We gotta find Yuma already!"

"Too late for that." Kaito said. He had walked out, away from the theatre, and was looking at the roof. "They're already dueling."

"WHAT?!" Sarah practically screamed as she, Rei, and Shark ran over to Kaito. Yuma and Kotori were both standing on the roof of the movie theatre and were about to duel. Sarah put her face in her hands. "Oh jeez I'm the absolute worst matchmaker ever…"

"And that's why I told you something always goes wrong on these." Shark said. "We should just get up there for now."

"Only employees are allowed up there though." Sarah said. "There's no way we're gonna be able to get up there."

Kaito and Shark both looked at her with an 'are you serious' face at the same time.

"Girls…" Kaito said, shaking his head.

_**-linebreakofsomesort-**_

Yuma didn't understand girls at all.

He didn't get why Kotori got so mad over little things sometimes. There was that time he was dueling that vegetable dude, Housaka, and when he mentioned he didn't like tomatoes, she got super angry at him. Then also the time when Droite was dueling Tron and mumbled some nonsense about liking Kaito and when he said he didn't understand, she jabbed him in the stomach. Over and over and over, she was always talking about what an idiot he was whenever he told her about the times when he forgot his things or lost his duels.

In fact, it wasn't just Kotori. It was all girls in general. That girl Anna had chased him all around town with a freaking _cannon_, tried to shoot him with it, dueled, and in the end, it turns out she was just trying to kill a dude named Tsukune Yuya instead! And at their first meeting, at least Yuma thought it was their first meeting, Cat-chan had Kotori distracted for the entire day just so she could duel with him. Why not just ask out right, "Hey Yuma, can we duel?" But no. Girls always had to make things complicated.

This time, she had definitely gone off the weird meter though. After they came out of the movie, they were discussing it, and it had gone pretty well until Kotori began talking about an actor in there and how cool he was, and for some reason, Yuma didn't like it. So he said the guy wasn't that great, and Kotori responded with something about him being jealous. Jealous of what? The guy's strange accent?

But then when he began talking about how weird it was that she liked a random dude who wasn't even real, they began arguing. And before he even realized it, Kotori had stormed off. Oops.

Then Kotori came back and demanded to duel him. He didn't even realize Kotori knew how to duel until he remembered that Sarah had taught her the other day. Maybe she wanted to blow off some steam or something, he didn't know. So he agreed, and they were both on the roof ready to duel now. But Kotori hadn't stopped giving him the look. That awkward, 'I'm so annoyed with you' look that she had been giving him ever since she got out of the washroom.

"Um, Kotori?"

"What Yuma?" She snapped at him, still glaring.

"Well, this is our first duel, so maybe you could…"

"I could what?!"

"…loosen up?" He finished, nervous about how she'd react.

Yuma could practically see steam coming out of her ears.

"Loosen up? LOOSEN UP?! YOU'RE TELLING ME TO LOOSEN UP YUMA?!" Kotori screamed at him so loud he swore people in China could hear. "OH I'M LOOSE! I'M SO LOOSE! AND I'M GONNA BEAT YOU SOOOO HARD!"

"K-Kotori? Calm down, please?"

"OH AND NOW YOU'RE TELLING ME TO CALM DOWN?! I AM CALM! NOW DUEL ALREADY YUMA TSUKUMO!" And then she pulled out a duel disk (he had no idea she had one) and her d-gazer and activated them.

Yuma sighed. No backing out of this for sure. He took out his duel disk and d-gazer, and tossed them in the air.

"Duel disk, set! D-gazer, set!"

_"AR Vision, Link Complete." _ A mechanical voice said as the AR around them was formed.

"Duel!" They both yelled.

**Yuma: 4000**

**Kotori: 4000**

"I'm going first!" Kotori yelled. "Draw!"

_K-Kotori's scary today… _Yuma thought. _Why though…_

"I activate the field spell, Future Visions!" The area around them became distorted, as colors swirled together and portals appeared and disappeared in different spots over and over.

"Now whenever we normal summon a monster, it's removed from play until our next turn!" Kotori explained. "Now I summon Fairy Archer!" A small fairy with skinny wings and a purple and green outfit made out of petals and leaves appeared. She held a shining bow and arrow, and as soon as she fully appeared, she was sucked into a portal to the side, disappearing.

"Your monster disappeared…" Yuma pointed out dumbly.

"Duh! Future Visions does that! I end my turn with two cards face down. Turn end!"

"Okay then! It's my turn! Draw!" Yuma yelled. Astral appeared next to him.

"Yuma. Be careful." Astral said. "Kotori seems to be acting weird."

"Oh, I'm pretty sure it's nothing. Girls are weird like that. They have these weird mood swings and they get upset over little things." Yuma said. "Anyway, that's a weird field spell."

"But it only affects Normal Summoning." Astral said. "Meaning there's a way around it."

Yuma looked at him confused, then understood what he meant. "Oh!" He smiled.

"I summon Goblindbergh!" Yuma said as four goblins in little airplanes flew onto the field carrying a metal steel case. The airplanes and goblins disappeared into a portal, but left the large steel case behind.

"Goblindbergh's effect lets me special summon a level four or below monster from my hand. I summon Rai Rider!" From the steel case drove out a man on a motorcycle.

"This is a special summon, so Future Visions doesn't activate! Rai Rider! Direct attack Kotori!" Yuma shouted as the man drove his motorcycle towards Kotori.

"Damage Diet activates!" Kotori yelled, activating her trap, then braced herself as she got hit by a smaller Rai Rider.

**Yuma: 4000**

**Kotori: 3400**

"And now I activate my other trap, Pixie Gong!" Kotori said. "This lets me summon Little Fairy from my deck!" The trap card glowed and a small fairy with pink hair, a pink outfit, and luminescent wings emerged from it.

"I end my turn Kotori."

_**-apersonalizedlinebreak-**_

"And you said," Kaito grunted slightly as he knocked out a guard in their path, "That we wouldn't be able to get up to the top."

"W-Well, non-employees aren't allowed up there," Sarah winced as another guard smashed into the wall, courtesy of Shark, "so we're technically not allowed up there."

"No time for technicalities right now. We gotta keep moving if what you said was right." Shark said.

"If Kotori-san is really possessed by the Barian, both Yuma-kun and her will be in trouble." Rei said.

Sarah looked at the three of them. "Why am I the only one who isn't freaked out by this at all?! This isn't the cartoon world! If it was, I'd totally be fine with you guys doing this! This is the freaking real world! You guys can actually go to jail for this and be stuck there for a year or two! This isn't harmless! There's gonna be consequences!"

"We know." Kaito said, making her stop. "And we're prepared for it. But stopping the Barians is more important than a little jail time."

"The problem is, Yuma hasn't grown up enough to realize it." Shark said. "One day, he's gonna have to. Until then, we're stuck with cleaning up his messes."

Sarah didn't say anything. She took a breath, then continued walking down the path with them. "I wish it was the other way around." She said sadly. "That I was stuck in you guys's world instead of you guys in mine. I wouldn't miss this world at all. But you guys still gotta get home."

Shark looked at her, then at Kaito, who shrugged.

Rei stared at her.

_**-thislinebreakiscopyrightedto Tsukuyomi-chan-**_

"It's my turn! Draw!" Kotori yelled. "Fairy Archer returns to my field!" The fairy from the turn before reappeared from a portal. "I activate Burning Land!"

Suddenly, all of the portals around them caught on fire and burned away, leaving the regular rooftop, surrounded by fire. "This destroys the field spell, and each time it's our standby phase we take 500 points of damage."

"Now she'd destroying the field spell?!" Yuma yelled, and a burning portal collapsed near him. "Ahhh! Hot hot hot!"

"Yuma, this is AR. It's not real." Astral said.

"Oh. Right… I knew that."

"She had no more need for it, so she got rid of it." Astral said, looking at Kotori. "Kotori has gotten strong. Perhaps better than you."

"What?! Oh come on!" Yuma yelled.

"I summon Dancing Fairy in defense mode!" Three tiny fairies flew out of the card and danced together around Kotori, smiling happily.

"Get ready, Yuma!" She yelled.

_**-thislinebreakisalsocopyright edtoTsukuyomi-chan-**_

"H-H-How, m-many," Sarah breathed heavily as she grabbed the railing of the endless stairway of stairs and pulled herself up another one, "stairs, are, there!"

"Just a few more!" Rei called, a few flights above her.

"It's not that much." Shark said, ahead of Rei.

"I'm, not the best, at, physical activity." She leaned against the wall to catch her breath. "I prefer playing on my computer."

"A computer can't carry you up these stairs." Kaito said.

"Orbital carries you everywhere! Doesn't he count as a computer?" Sarah said.

Kaito didn't say anything. "Let's continue."

"Yeah…"

They reached the top and Shark opened the door to the roof. The door was attached to a little room, which then opened to the full roof. As the others came out, Shark made a 'shhh' gesture with his hand and pointed around the building with the other.

The door opened facing off the roof. To the other side of the room was Yuma and Astral's back. They were facing Kotori in a duel.

"It seems we're too late to stop them." Rei whispered as the four of them peeked from behind the little room. "They're already dueling."

Sarah stared at the duel. "I don't get anything anymore. The duel disks are working again. What. The. Heck."

"Barian's probably making them work." Shark said.

"Yeah… mystical powers and all that…" She muttered. "No sense… no sense at all…."

_**-mwahahahahahahaha-**_

"I activate Fairy Archer's effect!" Kotori said. "During my main phase, you take 400 points of damage for each Light monster on my field! And there's three!"

"What?!" Yuma yelled. "So that's, um, 1000 damage?!"

"It's 1200." Astral said.

"Oh, right, 1200. 1200?!"

"Go!" The little fairy drew back her bow and took aim, then released the arrow, which shot across the field, hitting Yuma right in the forehead. He fell backwards and yelped.

**Yuma: 2800**

**Kotori: 3400**

By discarding one card, Little Fairy gains one level!" Kotori called, sending the last card in her hand to the graveyard. "I overlay my now level four Little Fairy with my level four Dancing Fairy. I build the overlay network with these two monsters! Xyz summon!"

A girl with blue hair appeared onto the field. She had a blue cheer outfit with matching boots and a light green skirt. She had blue butterfly-like wings and two cheer pompoms, which she shook in the air happily while chanting 'Go'. "Appear now, Fairy Cheer Girl!"

_**-linebreakofsomesort-**_

"Kotori-san Xyz summoned!" Rei exclaimed.

"I suppose you're gonna blame me for giving her that card too, right?" Sarah looked at Shark and Kaito.

"Perhaps." Shark said.

_**-linebreakofsomesort-**_

"Fairy Cheer Girl's effect! By removing an overlay unit, I can draw a card!" Kotori said, drawing. "Now, Fairy Cheer Girl! Attack Rai Rider!"

Fairy Cheer Girl posed, then flew over to Rai Rider and hit the motorcyclist with her pom poms. The blast was strangely strong, sending both Rai Rider and Yuma back.

**Yuma: 2200**

**Kotori: 3400**

"Fairy Archer can't attack because I activated her effect, so I end my turn with a facedown." Kotori said, a card appearing onto her field facedown.

"Okay then, it's my turn! Draw!" Yuma said. Suddenly, fire dropped near him and he yelled in shock. "Hot hot hot!"

**Yuma: 1700**

**Kotori: 3400**

"What was that?!" Yuma yelled.

"The effect of Burning Land. It negates her field spell and causes you 500 points of damage every time you draw." Astral said. "Also, because Burning Land was activated, Goblindbergh is stuck removed from play."

"What?! Aw…" Yuma looked at his hand. "Then I summon Gagaga Magician!"

A magician dressed in a black mage's outfit that covered half of his face with flames decorating the edges appeared onto the field. Chains floated around him, and a gold plate around his waist that had four stars on it.

"Now I use Gagaga Clerk's effect from my hand and summon her!"

A girl with long pink hair and a schoolgirl outfit underneath a white lab-coat-like cape appeared next to Gagaga Magician, nodding nervously.

"I activate the spell Harmonic Winds!" Yuma yelled. "This makes Gagaga Clerk a level 4!" The clerk on his field stood a bit straighter as the two stars in front of her multiplied into four.

"I overlay my level four Gagaga Magician and my level four Gagaga Clerk! I build the overlay network with these two level four monsters! Xyz summon!"

A large gold and white mechanical form rose from the ground, gleaming brightly. It folded out arms and legs, along with a head and gave a battle cry as he drew his two swords. "Appear! Numbers 39! Kibou Ou Hope!"

_**-linebreakofsomesort-**_

Shark had to grab Sarah's mouth and cover it with both hands to stop her from fangirl squealing at the appearance of one of her favourite cards.

"Yuma got out his Numbers." Kaito said, observing the duel with his usual expression.

Rei didn't say anything.

_**-linebreakofsomesort-**_

"Kibou Ou Hope! Attack Fairy Cheer Girl!" Yuma yelled.

"I activate my trap Negate Attack!" Kotori called, holding out her hand as her trap card opened out.

"N-Negate Attack?!" Yuma stared. "That's one of the oldest trap cards in history! It got lost a long time ago, and nobody's used it since! How'd you—"

"Different world, different card histories."

"Oh." A barrier formed around Fairy Cheer Girl, blocking her from Hope's incoming swords. The barrier disappeared, and Hope jumped back to Yuma's side.

"Um," Yuma slid two cards into his duel disk, "I'll end my turn with a facedown then."

_**-linebreakofsomesort-**_

Shark sighed. "Well, there's not much he could've done at that time."

"He just has to survive some more so he can pull off a winning move." Kaito said.

Sarah didn't say anything. She frowned. Shark looked at her.

"What's wrong?"

Sarah grumbled. "I expected more."

"Well, it's dueling. Sometimes things just don't go your way."

"I still expected more. Something cooler than two facedowns."

_**-linebreakofsomesort-**_

"It's my turn!" Kotori yelled. "Draw!" She winced as fire dropped near her.

**Yuma: 1700**

**Kotori: 2900**

"I activate the spell, Card of Demise! This lets me draw until I have five cards in my hand, and then in five turns I discard my entire hand." She looked at the cards she drew, and her eyes seemed to go blank as the Barian symbol appeared on her forehead.

"Oh, dang…" Sarah said.

"First I activate Fairy Cheer Girl's effect again to draw another card!" Kotori pulled a card out from her duel disk.

"I activate Rank Up Magic, Barian's Force!" She yelled, holding up the card which glowed red. All of them stared as the dark aura around Kotori grew brighter.

"Barian's Force?!" Yuma yelled.

"It's coming! The Chaos Xyz!" Astral said.

"This card raises the rank of one Xyz Monster by one and changes it into a Chaos Xyz! I rebuild the Overlay Network with Fairy Cheer Girl!" Kotori said as her xyz monster flew up into a portal in the air. The portal exploded with dark energy. "Chaos Xyz Change!"

"Appear now, the great power of the Barians!" A woman appeared onto Kotori's field from a swirling ball of energy. She had dark purple hair and a dark purple cheer outfit with white fur as a skirt, hair accessories, and linings on her outfit. Sparkling black wings spread out behind her, and there were patches of glowing red in the middle of her clothing. "Chaos Xyz: Dark Fairy Cheer Girl!"

"What's going on?!" Yuma yelled.

"Kotori's been possessed by Barian!" Astral said.

"That would explain the behaviour…." Yuma muttered.

"I activate the spell Temptation of the Goddess!" Kotori said. "I look at your hand and choose one level 4 or below monster and special summon it in attack mode to your side!"

"What?!" Images of the cards in Yuma's hand appeared in front of him as he panicked. Kotori studied then. "I choose Pinecono!"

A magic circle appeared onto Yuma's field and a little cartoon boy with a pinecone hat and pinecone pants jumped out of it. "Ack!" Yuma panicked. "Go back, go back, go back into my hand please!" The boy looked at Yuma confused.

"Dark Fairy Cheer Girl, attack Pinecono!" Kotori yelled. "Fairy Turn Particle!"

The dark cheerleader lifted out her hands gracefully, then spun around faster and faster into a tornado. Particles of sharp light flew out of the tornado, shooting themselves at the tiny, defensless acorn. There was a huge explosion as smoke covered the entire field.

"It's over." Kotori said.

_**-linebreakofsomesort-**_

"Oh my god Yuma!" Sarah yelled. Shark grabbed her mouth, stopping her mid-scream. Luckily, Kotori didn't seem to hear.

"It's fine." Kaito said. "That idiot wouldn't lose yet."

The smoke cleared away, and Yuma was seen still standing, smiling slightly.

**Yuma: 2600**

**Kotori: 2900**

"What?!" Kotori stared. "How did you survive?!"

"Cause of my trap! Nutrient Z!" Yuma smiled. "If I'm about to take more than 2000 points of battle damage, Nutrient Z gives me 4000 life points before I get hit!"

_**-linebreakofsomesort-**_

"That's one of the original Duel Monster cards lost in history." Kaito said. "How would he…"

The three boys all looked at Sarah, who was staring at Yuma.

"He freaking stole my card…" She muttered in disbelief. "I thought it was weird how one of my cards disappeared when I was checking them… he took it… he freaking took my card… Oh he is so going down after this…"

_**-linebreakofsomesort-**_

Kotori scowled. "You're so annoying, Yuma!"

"What? What did I do?"

"Yuma, she's still possessed by Barian." Astral said to him.

Yuma looked at Kotori. The Barian symbol was still glowing on her forehead, and her expression hadn't changed. "Uh, are you sure it's not just the girl in her talking?" Yuma said. "Girls do have weird mood swings sometimes."

Astral looked at him in possibly pity, then back at the duel. He sighed.

"I activate Dark Fairy Cheer Girl's effect! When she destroys a monster in battle, by removing a Chaos Xyz Material, you take 500 points of damage for each card in my hand!" Kotori held out her hand. "I have four! So that's two thousand points of damage!"

"What?!"

The glowing red diamond next to Dark Fairy Cheer Girl flew up into her hand, and turned into a wand. She spun it around, then shot a burst of red energy from it at Yuma, who yelled and was blasted back.

**Yuma: 600**

**Kotori: 2900**

"Turn end!" Kotori said.

_**-linebreakagainsorryifyou'reannoyedatthem-**_

Sarah sighed. "Well Yuma's royally screwed. Getting beaten by his would-be girlfriend and all that."

"You do realize if he loses the Numbers will all go and we'll be stuck here with no Numbers other than Ryoga's." Kaito said.

Sarah looked at him in shock. "YUMA DON'T LO—"

"He still don't know we're here." Shark hissed to her, grabbing her by the mouth again. This act was getting pretty old to him by now. Why couldn't she remember to be quiet?

Sarah gave him a look, then pulled the hand off of her mouth and looked back at the duel. She crossed her fingers for luck. "Don't freaking lose now…"

_**-andnowbacktotheduel-**_

Yuma took a deep breath. "Well here goes. My turn, draw!"

He looked at the card he just drew, and stared. Then he smiled.

"Yuma," Astral said, smiling at him. "Let's win now."

"Yeah!" Yuma yelled. Burning bits of wood fell near him, and he winced but didn't let it bother him.

**Yuma: 100**

**Kotori: 2900**

"Kotori!" He called across the field to the green haired girl. "This was a really fun duel! We should do it again sometime! I summon Achacha Archer!"

An archer in armor jumped onto the field. He took one arrow, and shot it at Kotori.

**Yuma: 100**

**Kotori: 2400**

"Achacha Archer's effect makes you take 500 points of damage! Now, I activate Achacha Chanbara's effect from my hand!" Yuma held out the card. "Since there was an effect that just damaged you, I can special summon him, and you take another 400 points of damage!"

Next to the archer, a samurai-like person wearing armour of the same theme appeared. The samurai jumped forwards and slashed at Kotori before returning to Yuma's field.

**Yuma: 100**

**Kotori: 2000**

"I overlay my level three Achacha Archer and my level three Achacha Chanbara! I build the overlay network with these two level three monsters. Xyz summon!"

A purple mechanical structure with what looked like an eye in the middle rose from the ground. Parts of it folded outwards as it grew larger until a purple dragon with six wings roared. "Appear! Numbers 17! Leviathan Dragon!

"Leviathan Dragon's effect! I remove an Xyz material from him to give him 500 more attack points! Leviathan Dragon attacks Dark Fairy Cheer Girl!"

"Their attack points are the same, it'll be a tie!" Kotori yelled.

"That's what I'm hoping for! Revice Stream!" The dragon charged up its breath and shot it at the fairy. The fairy cheerleader spun her wand around to block the stream, and the explosion from the attack destroyed them both.

"And then," Yuma said, smiling at his next move, "There's nothing protecting you anymore. You're wide open!"

Kotori gasped slightly as she looked at her empty field.

"Go, Kibou Oh Hope! Attack Kotori directly!" Yuma yelled. "Kattobingu! Hope Sword Slash!"

The Numbers leapt into the air, lifting his swords into the air. He dived down across the field, slashing Kotori right down the side and sending her flying backwards.

**Yuma: 100**

**Kotori: 0**

_**-linebreakofsomesort-**_

"Yuma won! Yuma won!" Sarah and Rei cheered together.

"He should have done it faster." Shark said.

Kaito looked at the sky. In the distance, a metal shape was flying towards them. "Hm?"

As the shape came closer, he could hear yelling coming from it.

"Let go of me!"

"NO! Scary heights!"

"I need to get to Kaito-sama!"

"Put me down put me down!"

"Orbital!" Kaito yelled. The shape seemed to turn towards him, and began flying to him. His servant robot had its wings extended and was flying through the air. There was a little girl on its back.

Orbital touched down in front of Kaito, saluting while trying not to get annoyed by the little girl crawling over him. "Kaito-sama! I got here as fast as I could!"

"Mean robot!" The little girl yelled. She fell off of Orbital and ran over to Sarah, hugging her as fast as possible. "Meanie monster robot got out of closet!"

Sarah stared at Orbital while hugging her little sister. "You carried my little sister all the way here from flying?"

"She wouldn't let go you stupid girl!"

A vein twitched on Sarah's head. "Stupid girl?"

"Why did you lock me in the closet?!"

"So you wouldn't interrupt my plan!" Sarah argued. "Jeez, you are mean robot."

"What was that?!"

"U-Um, Sarah? You realize you're arguing with a robot, right?" Rei said.

"It's a stupid robot!"

_**-linebreakmodeactivate!-**_

The Barian Symbol on Kotori's forehead disappeared as she stumbled backwards. Yuma was still too happy about his win to notice, but Kotori was stepping too close to the edge of the roof.

Kotori took a step backwards, then another. Right off the edge of the roof.

"YUMA!" Astral yelled, pointing at Kotori as fast as he could. Yuma turned in head just in time to see Kotori take the step off of the roof.

"KOTORI!" He screamed, running towards her.

Yuma jumped forwards, managing to grab Kotori's hand. He pulled her forwards and hugged her tight as they both went falling off of the roof of the building.

_Well, this isn't too bad of a way to go. I finally hugged Kotori, rescued her from Barian, and now we're going to splat on the sidewalk together. I didn't even get all the Numbers. I got my friend with me though. Wonder if there's duel monsters in the afterlife?_

"Orbital! Bed mode activate!" Kaito yelled. Orbital looked away from the argue to salute, then flew down to the sidewalk. It began transforming into a huge bed double the size of a King bed.

Yuma and Kotori fell onto the bed, bounced off of it, then landed onto another part of the bed. Yuma's head was ringing. Falling 20 meters through the air onto a sort of lumpy bed wasn't exactly comfortable, but it was better than splatting onto a sidewalk, that was for sure.

Yuma opened his eyes slightly. He was alive. HE WAS ALIVE! He would be screaming in joy if he wasn't so tired for some reason. He yawned. There was a bed under him. He might as well take a little nap.

Kotori woke up slightly. She didn't know why she couldn't remember what happened, or how she ended up on whatever she was lying on. She was extremely tired for some reason, and she was pressed against something, someone warm. It felt nice, being snuggled up to someone.

And then Yuma and Kotori fell asleep together on the bed, still hugging each other.

_**-linebreakofsomesort-**_

"And a happy ending! Yes!" Sarah said happily. "I knew my plan would work!"

Shark stared at her. "You call this working?"

"It worked out in the end though!"

"So what I said at the beginning was right." Shark said.

"Sure. I just have one question though."

"What?"

Sarah looked at Kaito. "Why does Orbital have a bed mode?"

Kaito looked uncomfortable. "Haruto likes jumping on beds." He muttered. "So I installed one on Orbital."

"Oh…" Sarah nodded. She turned away and snickered. "Oh well. SKYSHIPPING RULES!"

"What's skyshipping?" Her little sister asked.

"Oh, nothing you need to worry about." Sarah patted her head, then looked at the sleeping Yuma and Kotori. "They're so cute together."

Rei laughed, then stopped. He looked to the side in confusion.

"Something wrong?" Shark asked him.

Rei thought about it. "No, nothing's wrong."

"We still have something to settle." Kaito said from behind Sarah, making her stiffen. "Revenge for before…."

_**-linebreakofsomesort-**_

"Ah! Stop! Stop! Ack! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! No! Not there! Ahahaha! That tickles! I'm extremely ticklish! Don't poke there! Hahaha! Stop! They're freaking tickling me!" Sarah laughed and twitched over and over. She was duct-taped to a chair and Kaito was collecting money off of people paying to poke her.

"You do it to me, I'll do it to you." Kaito said, fanning out the money he had made. "Don't worry, I'll give you 5 bucks later."

"Kaito! Damnit! Ahaha too much tickling! It tickles! Stop it stop it too much! Kaito I'm gonna get you, ahaha, for this later!"

* * *

**Me: . . . Sorry for being late again. But then, this is the longest chapter I've ever written for this, so I hope it makes up for it.**

**Astral: No, not really.**

**Me: Not the point Astral! Anyway, hopefully review, follow, favourite, I might update faster next time! Next time, the Barians get serious with Number hunting!**


	12. 3 Part Chapter Extraordanaire

**Me: . . . ugh. . . yeah. . . I've had to deal with. . . stuff I'd rather not talk about. . . Let's just say it involved a hacker, Facebook, and extremely rude and inappropriate messages which I never want to talk about or see ever again. . . it was a bit hard for me to finish this after that. . .**

**Astral: I didn't know it was possible to get cyber bullied by a person you didn't even know.**

**Me: Apparently it is… plus it took me so long to finally be able to block the jerk. Gods… you have no idea how hard it is to work with someone like that bothering you to no end. I don't own Yugioh Zexal or Zexal II… still sad about it…**

**Astral: This chapter's a bit strange in the way she organized it, because she wanted to do something for everyone.**

* * *

**Sorta Prologue**

"This isn't working. We need the Numbers now!"

"Send out more Barians then! Have them get the Numbers for us then!"

"Abusing the current alliance with them won't do us any good."

"Who cares! Even if Force is the strongest of us, he's not doing anything!"

"So we take matters into our own hands?"

"Yes. We will have to."

* * *

**Chapter 12a: Kaito's Awkward Day**

"Orbital. Any information about the Barians?" Kaito said as he walked into his temporary office at Sarah's house. Orbital was typing on some computers, and turned around in his seat when he heard his master come in.

"U-Um, Kaito-sama? The technology in this world is too slow and not advanced enough for me to track down the Barian signals…" Orbital said nervously.

Kaito glared at him, making him squeak slightly. When he didn't say anything and then turned away, Orbital let out a breath he was technically incapable of holding. Kaito began walking out of the door.

"K-Kaito-sama, where are you going?" Orbital asked.

"To go find the necessary technology so that I can track down the Barians." Kaito said. He walked to the garage of the house, where he had Orbital dismantle one of the cars Sarah had on the day he arrived and turn it into a motorcycle. He got on the motorcycle and drove out of the house.

_**-plays epic Kaito motorcycle music in the background-**_

"There should be the items I need in here." Kaito said as he pulled off his helmet and looked at the large building in front of him. "The mall back in our world sold all sorts of items. There's probably something here that can help track down the energy of the Barians."

He walked in and was greeted by the sight of electronics everywhere.

"Well, I guess this place will do." He said as he walked down the aisles. There were TV's, laptops, computers, and all sorts of iPhones. He wasn't really sure what an iPhone was, but it looked like a bulkier version of the d-gazer.

Kaito walked up the the customer help desk in his usual walking fashion, making the woman at the desk wary of him already. "I'm looking for any equipment capable of tracking energy from life forms of different worlds. Does your store have any?"

"W-What?" The woman said, completely baffled and not understanding what he was talking about.

"Do I need to repeat myself? I said—"

"I heard him." A seventeen year old girl with short brown hair said as she randomly walked up to him. "You're interested in searching for alternate life forms in different worlds?"

"Not interested. It's basically my job." Kaito said. The girl's eyes widened.

"That's so cool! I'm studying astronomy and alternate life at my college, and it'd be great if maybe we could talk about it a bit?" She asked, extending her hand for a handshake. "I'm Eliza Corrigan, by the way."

Kaito looked at the outstretched hand and debated his choices. He could ignore it and walk away now, but this girl might have known something useful. So, why not? "Kite Tenjo. Nice to meet you." Kaito said calmly, shaking her hand back. "So, is there a place we can talk?"

_**-linebreakofsomesort-**_

"So how did you get interested in aliens?" Eliza asked Kaito as they sat at a table in the mall's food court.

"My father's a scientist. I use his lab a lot." Kaito said. "He was studying gateways to other worlds."

"Gateways to other worlds? Sounds difficult. Did he ever find out anything?"

"I actually already know of two different worlds with life on it other than ours."

"T-Two?!" Eliza accidentally choked on her smoothie. She coughed a bit before regaining her posture. "Two different worlds?!"

"So you don't know anything about them then."

"This is news to me." Eliza shrugged. "I'm pretty sure this is news to everyone on Earth, since there's people who think there are aliens, but there's never been any real proof. How do you know for sure then?"

"I've found proof. And met one of the beings on the planet, along with samples as well." Kaito responded. "I'm looking for any sort of device that will be able to track down their exact location by sensing the energy signals."

"Hmm…" Eliza thought about it. "Well, I know about tracking devices, except most of them aren't very exact, and I'm pretty sure you need to attach a tracking device to the person, well, other life form I guess, to be able to find it."

"Would it work on other planets?"

"That I don't know. They need satellite to track down the tracking device, and the satellite signals might not work if it's too far away."

"I see." Kaito said. "Well, thank you for your time anyway. I'll be—"

Something buzzed inside his jacket, and he reached into his pocket to pull out a special d-gazer. He didn't really need one, since he had his photon mode, but in case anything ever happened, and if Orbital wasn't around to receive messages, he could use it. "Sorry, give me a second." He said to her as he turned away and pressed accept on the incoming call. A picture of Orbital appeared on the screen. Anne, Sarah's little sister, was sitting on top of his head.

"Kaito-sama! There's a Numbers sensed in your area!" Orbital said, panicking.

"Numbers! Numbers!" Anne repeated happily.

"The signal's fuzzy since we don't have the proper equipment, but it's somewhere near you!"

"Near you! Near you!"

"And it's a really irregular Numbers too! Be careful, Kaito-sama!"

"Kaity Kaito!"

Kaito nodded, trying to ignore the strange comments from the little girl. The line cut off, and Kaito put the d-gazer back into his jacket. He walked back to Eliza, then sat down. "Sorry. Just a report from back at my base."

"Oh, that's not too bad." Eliza smiled. "Anyway, I thought about it, and I think some science labs have equipment that can track energy waves like earthquakes or strange occurrences around the globe."

"Well, thanks for the information. I'll be going now." Kaito said.

"Wait!" Eliza said, then stopped. She blushed slightly. "Um…"

"What is it?" Kaito said as he got up.

"Before you go, can I have your Number?"

Kaito paused. "What?"

"You know, your Number. Or Numbers if you have more than one. Just in case. So, can—"

"So you're a Number Hunter then?!" Kaito jumped back, an angry look on his face. This must have been what Orbital was talking about. "I'm the Number Hunter, and you're not getting anything from me! So let's duel now!"

Eliza stared at him in shock. By now, half of the people in the food court were staring at him. She slung her purse over her shoulder. "Um, this probably isn't going to work out… So I'll just go now…"

Then she ran out of the mall, with Kaito staring after her, wondering what the hell had just happened.

"So then, she wasn't a Number Hunter…" Kaito said to himself. "Oh."

He really wasn't good with girls. But at least he wasn't as bad as Yuma was.

So where did the Number signal come from then?

Then a paper airplane hit him in the head, interrupting his thoughts. He grabbed it, then looked around for who threw angrily. It looked like nobody had done it, so he opened the paper. There was a note on it.

_Roof. Come quickly, Tenjo Kaito._

What is it with people and roofs? The duel between Yuma and Kotori had happened there, and it was pretty dangerous there too. Plus Orbital wasn't there. This note was weird, but it somehow knew his name. He read the note again, then sighed. He might as well go check it out. Kaito threw the note over his shoulder as he walked away.

As he walked, the note fluttered to the ground, flipping around in midair. On the back of the note was the Barian symbol.

* * *

**Me: I'm sorry, I've always wanted to do that to Kaito! Mistaking flirting for Numbers hunting!**

**Astral: That was just you having fun.**

**Me: I know!**

* * *

**Chapter 12b: Never Call Shark 'Reggie'**

"U-U-Um…" The girl stuttered. Shark crossed his arms, looking at her with an expression of pure boredom.

"Yes? What is it?" Shark said for what had to be the fifth time.

"W-W-Will you go to the d-dance on Friday night with m-me?"

Shark sighed. This was the fourteenth invitation he got to go to the dance from girls this week. What was this, ask Shark out day? And he had seen at least thirty girls whispering and eyeing him in the hallways, figuring out whether or not to try asking. Plus there was that time were even a few boys tried coming up him to ask the question. If Sarah was here, she'd probably go on and on about Sharkbaitshipping and Challengeshipping at those moments. He wasn't exactly sure what it was, but she continued to rant and fangirl about it.

"I'll think about it." He responded, like he had done to all the other requests. The girl looked satisfied with herself, relieved, and happy, so she left. When she left, Shark groaned. This was getting out of hand. Back at Heartland, most kids were too scared to ask him to this sort of thing. After he had gotten nicer after befriending Yuma and the others, it had gotten slightly better, but something like this had never happened.

"Well, let's just get class over with." Shark muttered, getting out his textbook.

_**-linebreakofsomesort-**_

"So Reginald, have you decided?" A girl asked him when he walked out of the classroom.

"Decided what?" Shark asked.

"Will you go to the dance with me?"

"I'll get back to you." Shark said and attempted to walk by her, but she blocked his way.

"The dance is next Tuesday so I need to know now!" She whined.

"I said I'll get back to you." Shark tried to get past her again but more girls appeared in his way. What was this, bother Ryoga day?

"He's going with me!"

"No he's going with me!"

"I asked way before you did!"

"Reginald! You're going with me right!"

"No you're going with me!"

The crowd of girls all turned to look at Shark, or rather, look at where Shark was. The all stared at the empty spot that WAS Shark a minute ago.

_**-linebreakofsomesort-**_

"Get him!"

"Where is he!"

Shark hid behind a corner as another crowd of girls ran past him. He breathed out. Too close for comfort. He had a pretty good idea of what would happen to him if they caught him. Rio had taught him that the many times he accidentally made her mad.

But still, what was he supposed to do with this? He couldn't get to his next class (that didn't bother him too much), he would have to sneak around everywhere, and eventually someone would find him and that would result in chaos.

"Hey! You're that dude hogging all the girls!" He heard a voice from behind yell and stiffened. He stopped when he realized the voice was a guys, then turned around and put on his regular face.

"What is it?" Shark asked.

"I'm Buff Beafy the most popular guy at this school, but ever since you came I've been getting ignored by more and more girls!" A large boy (or man) stood there angrily shouting at him. He was buff, shaggy haired, and sweaty. He annoyed Shark.

"That name fits too much." He mumpled. "And so what? It's not like I care."

"I challenge you! I'll win and then you have to admit to everyone that I'm better than you!"

Shark looked at him with contempt. "Not interested." He began to walk away.

"And if you win I'll go around the school acting like a chicken for the entire day!"

Shark stopped. He turned around and smirked. "Seriously?"

"If I win you have to do it though!"

"You just said that if, and only if, you win, I would have to just admit that you were better, although that would never happen."

"Well I'm adding that on as well!"

Shark sighed. "This is annoying and a waste of my time."

"Are you scared of losing?!" The guy yelled.

"Of course not. This is just a waste of my time."

"Chicken!" He yelled. "Chicken chicken chicken!"

By now, a crowd had gathered to watch them. This was getting out of hand.

"Chicken! Chicken! Reggie's a chicken!"

Shark froze. "What did you call me?"

"Aww wittle Weggie's a wittle chicken…" The guy said in a voice that made Shark want to punch him in his smug little face.

"Never…call…me…Reggie…" Shark grabbed him by the collar and growled. "You're on."

The guy tried to laugh, although it was pretty hard since Shark was holding onto him pretty hard. "You're on!"

_**-linebreakofsomesort-**_

"The first contest is one on one soccer!" Buff yelled. He and Shark stood face to face on the empty soccer field in the center, with a soccer ball between them. "First one to score wins!"

"You'll need an army to stop me from getting to that net." Shark said. Some kid on the side blew the whistle, and the contest was on.

It was over hardly before it began. In almost an instant, Shark had gotten the ball, dribbled it expertly past Buff, and kicked it so hard the ball slammed into the net. The boys stared in shock, while the girls squealed in happiness as Shark stood at the goal triumphantly.

"Are we done yet? I'd like to be able to eat lunch today." Shark said indifferently.

"We're not done yet!" Buff yelled. "Next is the wrestling match!"

_Shark flipped Buff onto his back so hard the mat ripped under the weight of it._

"Ping pong!"

_ The ping pong ball hit the table and bounced past Buff's racket every time._

"Tennis!"

_ Shark yelled as he hit the tennis ball and it fly across the net, hitting the pavement and slamming into the wall behind._

"Basketball!"

_ The ball fell into the Guest's hoop over and over, from afar and from close up._

"Archery!"

_ The arrow shot into the middle of the bull's-eye of the target, narrowly missing Buff's getting-less-smug-by-the-minute face._

"Tag!"

"Tag?"

"Uh, no tag! I meant hockey!"

_ The puck slid across the ice neatly into the net as Buff stared. He backed up until he was leaning on a wall, then slid down it._

"I-I-I… give up…"

"It's about time." Shark said. He sighed. "And that was all during school hours too. Now, have fun in the chicken suit tomorrow."

Buff kept staring at him. Then he began crying.

* * *

**Me: Ahehe… hey if Rio can do it Sharky can do it too!**

**Astral: Sharky?**

**Me: Sharky! Anyways, Shark's just not gonna go to the dance. Not his style. Was originally gonna have Gilag show up, but then realized. Gilag's not the most inconspicuous of people. He's a huge buff dude with little fairy wings.**

* * *

**Chapter 12c: Rumors, Rumors Everywhere**

_"Hey look, its Yuma Tsukumo!"_

_ "Do you think it's real?"_

_ "Who knows! I think it's possible though!"_

"What's everyone whispering about today?_" _Yuma wondered as he walked down the hallway of school. When he looked at a group of girls, they immediately turned away from him and began whispering more and more.

"Maybe there's some big news going around?" Rei said. He and Kotori didn't know why they were whispering either. Sarah had a bit of a guilty look on her face.

"Maybe." Yuma shrugged. He tapped on the shoulder of a random girl in the hallway. "Hey, do you know why people are—"

The girl squealed and jumped away, running to her friends who started giggling like crazy.

"Um, okay then…" Yuma stepped away, then went up to some boys. "Do you guys know what everyone's—"

Then the guy squealed like a girl and ran away. Sarah facepalmed. "Idiots…" She mumbled.

"This is really getting weird." Yuma said as he sat down in his seat in the classroom. He looked at the girl sitting next to him. "Hey, can I borrow an eraser?"

The girl stared at him. "Um, I'm sorry! I didn't do anything! Please don't do anything to me!"

"I wasn't going to do—"

"Here! Take it! Just don't do anything to me!" She threw her eraser at Yuma, then began cowering in her chair.

Yuma stared. "What?"

"Here, Yuma-kun!" Rei passed Yuma his eraser.

"Oh, thank you. I think…"

Meanwhile, Kotori was also having a weird time, although hers was the opposite of Yuma's. She sat down in her seat and many girls all came over to her at once.

"Oh my gosh Tori I'm so sorry!" One of them said.

"I can't believe that that could happen!"

"Don't worry, we're here for you!"

"Is Kotori Mizuki some sort of other name of yours?"

"You'll be just fine!"

"W-What are all of you talking about?" Kotori said, holding up her hands.

"It's okay, we know!"

"We'll help you!"

"H-Huh..?" Kotori was getting more and more confused.

"We found this!" A girl held out her phone. Open on it was a facebook page, and it had a picture of that day where her and Yuma had fallen asleep together on Orbital transformed into a bed. "I can't believe Yuma would do something like that!"

"Yuma did what?"

"Hey! Tori!" Sarah skipped over, grabbed Kotori's arm, then pulled her away. "Let's talk for a bit!"

She dragged Kotori over to where Yuma and Rei were, then grabbed Yuma's arm as well. "Hey! Yuma! Why don't you come with us for a second!"

"What? What what what?! Ow!" Yuma yelled as they left the classroom, Rei following them. Sarah lead then all into the first floor's girls washroom and pushed them in.

"Why is it I'm always in girl washrooms when something happens…" Yuma muttered.

"I don't think boys should be allowed in the girl's washroom." Rei said. "What if someone comes in."

"Nobody comes to the first floor washroom. If anyone ever uses it, it overfloods. Also, there's rumors of it being haunted, since there's always a dripping sound in here, even though kids and janitors and teachers have searched for days, but never found where the dripping came from. They even searched the pipes and the nearby taps and found nothing!" Sarah said. "Listen."

They all went quiet. There was a dripping sound coming from somewhere, although it was impossible to tell where it was. It was quiet, but just loud enough so that it could still be heard clearly.

"Creepy." Kotori said.

"I know, right! But that's not the point. Um…" Sarah looked away. "How do I put this…"

"Put what?" Yuma asked.

"Um… I figured out why everyone's acting so weird…"

"Really!" Rei shouted.

"Tell me!" Yuma added.

"Can we do anything about it?" Kotori said.

"Uh…" Sarah reached into her pocket and took out a phone. She texted something on it, then showed them a picture of Yuma and Kotori sleeping together on the Orbital bed. Underneath was the caption 'Skyshipping'.

"This went from this to this…" She slidded across the screen, and the same picture came up again, this time with the caption 'Yuma Tsukumo and Kotori Mizuki', "and went to this…" The next picture's caption said 'Yuma Tsukumo and Tori Meadows', "and went to this…" the next caption said 'What are they doing together?!', "and then at some point along the way it went to this…" 'What did Yuma do to Tori?!'.

"So…" The three of them, and Astral who decided to appear, looked at the picture's caption and stared. "This happened because of bad messaging passing?" Rei asked.

"Yeah…just about." Sarah said.

"So how'd the picture get on the internet in the first place?" Yuma asked. "There was nobody with me and Kotori that day!"

"Yeah." Kotori nodded. "You guys were busy doing something else, so we went by ourselves."

Rei looked at the two of them. Then he looked at Sarah with a 'Really?' look, who immediately panicked. Astral also looked at her curiously.

"I didn't know it would turn out like this!" Sarah yelled. "I was just posting some Skyshipping pictures on my blog! I didn't know the picture would go viral!"

Now Yuma and Kotori also stared at Sarah.

"You're the one who posted the picture online?" Kotori asked.

"It's not my fault! Okay, it sorta was, but I didn't know! Plus it was just hard to resist taking a picture of you two like that…" Sarah trailed off, realizing another secret she gave away.

"You were spying on us?" Yuma asked.

"Yes! No! Well, maybe! In a way! It wasn't really _spying_, more like making sure things went right, and they sorta did, but they also didn't, and…"

"You're just making things worse for yourself." Rei said. Sarah hung her head.

"Yeah…"

_**-linebreakofsomesort-**_

"I'M SORRY!" Sarah screamed as she ran down the hallway.

"GET BACK HERE!" Yuma yelled, running after her angrily.

"I SAID SORRY!"

"THAT DOESN'T MAKE IT BETTER!"

"Are they really going to be okay?" Rei asked.

Kotori sighed. "I don't know."

"I wonder how Shark and Kaito-san are doing? They can't be worse than this." Rei said, watching Yuma still chase Sarah around.

"Yeah… it'll probably be fine." Kotori said. "Probably…"

She looked at a poster on the wall. "Yugioh tournament? Isn't that the name which Sarah said the tv show we were in."

"So that would be the equivalent of a duel tournament back in our world." Rei said. "But Sarah said it wasn't very popular here."

"Well there's a pretty big prize. It says the winner gets a trip to Japan with all expenses paid, as well as this new card which hasn't been seen in either the anime or manga." Kotori said. "We have a manga? That's cool!"

"That would make anyone want to enter." Rei said. "Should we tell Yuma-kun?"

They both looked at the still running Yuma and Sarah and sweat-dropped.

"Yeah, he'll find out by himself even if we don't tell him." Kotori sighed.

* * *

**Me: Sorry about the wait again, these are getting slower to get out, but this time I had a legit reason. But anyways, I'll be at Disneyland for a week! It'll be a while, since Disneyland is, well, Disneyland!**

**Astral: And of course, it's predictable what she'll be like at Disneyland.**

**Me: RIDE THE ROLLARCOASTER ALREADY!**

**Astral: (sighs) Well, review and we'll be back next chapter.**


	13. Over Hundred Numbers What?

**Me: Aaaand, I procrastinated again. I BLAME DISNEYLAND! Anyways, I got over my triskaidekaphobia! That's why I can actually call this chapter Chapter 13! Hooray!**

**Astral: That's not exactly something to be proud of.**

**Me: Oh who cares! I STILL don't own Yugioh Zexal or Zexal II, although Zexal II is AWESOME because of recent episodes!**

* * *

**Chapter 13: Over Hundred Numbers…What?**

"So, what is it you want with me?" Kaito said, almost growling as he glared across at the man with long blond hair and a strange white and gray outfit. That was the dude who sent him the weird message, and most likely the one Orbital had sensed.

"That's not for you to know." The man said. "Although, my allies are taking care of your friends just about now."

"What?" Kaito glared.

"Kaito-sama!" A voice yelled from the sky as Orbital began hurtling from it and crashed next to Kaito. "K-Kaito-sama… Barians nearby…"

"Barians Barians!" Somehow, Sarah's little sister Anne had tagged along with Orbital again and was looking at the man while clapping and saying those words. "Two Galaxy-Eyes! Resonating! Huge power!"

"What?" Kaito wasn't one to listen to a six year old girl's rambling's, but that sounded, actually a bit important. If the little girl actually knew something, then maybe…

"Orbital! Call Yuma right now!" Kaito commanded.

"C-Confirmed!" Orbital got up off of the ground and projected a circle into the air. Yuma's face appeared on it.

"Huh? Kaito? What's wrong?" Yuma said.

"Y-Yuma what are you doing?!" Sarah hissed next to him. "You can't just be phoning someone in the middle of class!"

"Yuma. Is there anything weird going on over there?" Kaito asked.

"No not really. Other than math class. Why?" Yuma replied.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING!" Kaito heard someone yell on the other end.

"M-My friend called me!" He heard Yuma reply.

"NO PHONES DURING CLASS TIME! ESPECIALLY NO USING PHONES DURING CLASS TIME!"

"Can't you just let me finish my call—" The call ended when it seemed like Yuma's d-gazer got grabbed away and shut off violently.

"Well," Kaito finally said, "it seems he's just fine." He glared at the man, who was still smiling mysteriously. "You were wrong. There's nothing happening to Yuma. He's certainly not under attack by your Barian allies."

"Hmph. That's what you think." The man said. "Well, not the Yuma you know anyways. I guess in a way, it's not your friends we're currently attacking."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"You'll find out later. For now…" The man took out a little glowing red cube and threw it onto the ground. "My name is Misael, and I'll be getting rid of you now. Barian's Sphere Field, Activate!"

Bright red light expanded from where the cube had landed, and began solidifying into the shape of a red sphere made entirely out of translucent cards. It grew bigger and bigger into the air, as Orbital backed away from it, Anne on its back. Misael and Kaito got absorbed into the sphere, and floated on opposite sides of the sphere's inside.

"K-Kaito-sama! Be careful!" Orbital yelled.

"Two Galaxy-Eyes! Power! Resonate!" Anne added.

"It seems the little girl actually knows something." Misael said. "There doesn't need to be two Galaxy-Eyes users."

"Hm?" Kaito's eyes narrowed. "So that's what this is about. I get it now. And I agree, there doesn't need to be two Galaxy-Eyes users!"

"You catch on fast. Well then…"

"DUEL!"

**Misael: 4000**

**Kaito: 4000**

"I go first! Draw!" Kaito yelled. "Since I control no monsters, I special summon Photon Thrasher!" A warrior with blue armour appeared onto his field, with parts of his body and sword glowing in a light photon blue.

"And now I normal summon Photon Crusher!" Next to the first, a second photon warrior in green armour holding a large, heavy weapon easily appeared.

"I release my two to special summon!" Kaito held out his hand and the light gathered in it, forming a red, photon cross-like structure. He grabbed it and threw it into the air as it spun faster and faster, gathering more light towards it and forming a glowing dragon. "Embodiment of light, now descend! Come forth! Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon!" The dragon roared, flexing its glowing photon wings.

"So it's here." Misael said, looking at the dragon. "Galaxy eyes…"

"I set two cards facedown and end my turn." Kaito said. "Now, let's see what you can do."

"Gladly. It's my turn, draw!" Misael yelled. "Since you have a monster with over 2000 attack points on your field, I can special summon Schwarzschild, the Limit Dragon to my side!" A brown skinny dragon appeared on his field, and it twisted itself into an infinity shape.

"And now because I control a level 8 monster, I can special summon Parsac, the Interstellar Dragon!" Another dragon, this one resembling a bug with its long arms and skinny body in green, blue, and purple, appeared. "Because it was summoned this way, it becomes a level 8 monster!"

"Two level 8 monsters…" Kaito said.

"That's right." Misael said. "I overlay my level 8 Parsac and my level 8 Schwarzschild! I build the overlay network with these two level 8 monsters!" The two dragons flew into a portal on the ground, which exploded apart. "Xyz summon!"

A spiralling purple structure rose from the ground, and a tail, arms, and legs began appearing from it. A purple 107 flashed on the side as the head appeared and roared. "Appear! Numbers 107! Galaxy-Eyes Tachyon Dragon!"

"Numbers… 107?" Kaito stared.

"Over Hundred Numbers!" Orbital panicked. "This can't be!"

The newer dragon roared, and Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon responded by roaring as well. The entire area vibrated and shook as the two dragons called to each other.

"What's going on?" Kaito said.

"The two Galaxy-Eyes dragons will call forth a large amount of power." Misael answered. "That's the legend I've heard."

"And what does that mean?"

"For someone who's about to lose, there's no need to know." Misael smirked.

"Then I'll just find out when I win!" Kaito replied.

"Galaxy-Eyes Tachyon Dragon's effect activates! At the beginning of my battle phase, I detach an overlay unit, and for this battle phase, all other monster effects on the field are negated, and their attack and defense points return to normal!" Misael yelled.

"What?!" Kaito said, watching his own dragon's color dim as the other Galaxy-Eyes dragon return to its sealed form, releasing a kaleidoscope of colors. Now he couldn't use his dragon's effect to banish the two and steal the overlay units.

"Galaxy-Eyes Tachyon Dragon attacks Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon!" Misael yelled.

"The attack points are equal, but Numbers can only be destroyed by Numbers. I activate my trap Battle Simulation!" Kaito countered. "Now our monster's attack points are halved and can't be destroyed in battle this turn!" The trap card shot out two beams of light, shrinking down the two dragons as they attacked each other. They struck each other equally with beams of destruction, the explosion pushing back everyone in the area. Anne screamed and ran behind Orbital to hide.

"Equal..." Misael muttered. "But now Galaxy-Eyes Tachyon Dragon's next effect activates! Since a card was activated this battle phase, it gains 1000 attack points and can attack again!"

"What?!"

"Tachyon Spiral of Annihilation!" This time, when the mechanical purple dragon shot out it's beam of destruction, it hit the photon dragon in the chest hard, slamming it back. The explosion rung through the air until the smoke stopped, and Kaito's dragon was gone.

**Misael: 4000**

**Kaito: 3000**

"I set one card facedown and end my turn."

Kaito frowned. "Fine then. It's my turn! Draw!

"I activate the spell Monster Reborn!" He yelled. "I revive Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon!"

A swirling portal appeared on the ground, and from it reappeared Kaito's favourite monster, roaring for vengeance.

"I activate my spell Overlay Break!" He said. "Now I send all of your monster's overlay units to the graveyard, and your Tachyon Dragon loses the effect where it can't be destroyed in battle by any monster other than Numbers!"

"Not bad." Misael admitted.

"I summon Photon Crusher!" Kaito continued as a warrior in green armor and photon patches, wielding a large weapon appeared onto his field again. "Now Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon attacks! And with his effect, I banish both of the monsters!"

Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon roared, and both of the dragons dissolved into light particles, leaving Misael's field empty, but not Kaito's. "Photon Crusher direct attacks!"

The warrior charged forwards, his large bulky weapon hit Misael across the middle, slamming him back into the unstable wall of the Barian Sphere Field.

**Misael: 2000**

**Kaito: 3000**

"Now at the end of the battle phase, both of our dragon's return. Since Photon Crusher attacked, it switches to defense mode." Kaito said as his monster knelt down, and then the two dragons flew back onto the field. "I set one card facedown and end my turn."

Misael floated back to his spot, scowling. "It's my turn. Draw!"

"Let's go! Barian's Force!" He yelled, glowing in light and transforming back to his original, Barian form.

"What is this?!" Orbital yelled.

"This is your true form then." Kaito said.

"I'll show you the real power of Barian." Misael said. "I activate the spell Rank-Up Magic, Barian's Force!" He yelled, holding up the card which began to glow red.

"Rank up magic!" Kaito growled.

"This card ranks up my Numbers to a Chaos Numbers! I rebuild the overlay network with my rank 8 Galaxy-Eyes Tachyon Dragon!" Misael yelled. His Numbers formed back into its sealed form and rose into a portal in the sky, exploding apart in dark energy.

Kaito frowned. This wasn't going good for him at this rate.

"The power of Barian, born from Chaos, dwell in the Numbers! Chaos Xyz Change!" Light swirled and burst, as the seal on the Chaos Numbers was released. "Pierce through the galaxy and revive from before the creation of time! Surpass the eternal Dragon's Star!"

From the sky, a golden 107 flashed. A giant three-headed dragon descended from the sky, covered in golden flames. It was three times the size of Kaito's dragon. "Descend! Chaos Numbers 107! Neo Galaxy-Eyes Tachyon Dragon!" And when the dragon roared, the entire area shook, just like it did when the two Galaxy-Eyes Dragon first glared at each other, maybe even more. Just at that moment, when Kaito looked at the huge dragon, he was speechless for what was probably the third time in his life, the first being Zexal and the second being his dad's confession about what he was really doing. This topped them both. Another Neo Galaxy-Eyes. He scowled. This really wasn't going good for him.

Speaking of which, the area was still shaking. Orbital and Sarah's strange little sister were panicking together, and the dragon seemed to be the cause. It was getting out of control. Even Misael seemed to not be sure of what was going on. The Barian Sphere Cube was rumbling as well, as it spun around faster.

"This is bad." Misael said. "The dragon's power is too much for the Sphere Cube to hold! This isn't going to work!"

"What's that supposed to mean!" Kaito yelled.

"We'll meet again! And the next time we meet, I'll be the winner!" The Barian yelled. Both him and the Barian Sphere Cube disappeared, and the giant dragon flew up into the sky and disappeared.

Kaito landed on the roof, the area around the shopping mall all shaken up with cracks in the ground because of the duel. People on the ground were panicking, wondering what had happened. It really was a wonder how none of them had noticed him or the duel that had happened just a few moments ago.

He looked at Orbital, who had that little girl hiding behind him, and crossed his arms. Orbital picked up his message, snapped to attention, and transformed into a jetpack, which attached to Kaito's back. Kaito was just about to take off when he remembered Anne. He looked at her. Anne looked back, with large puppy dog eyes. His eye twitched.

In five minutes, they were at Sarah's home with Anne giggling and laughing after being carried by Kaito all the way through the air home. She ran back into the house happily, dragon Orbital with her. Kaito walked back in as well to his temporary lab.

He needed to talk with Yuma and Astral.

* * *

**Me: Um… the next chapter should be out sooner. Since there's no duel. I'm terrible with chapters that have duels. They take me forever. Not much of a duelist over here. Plus not so sure about Misael. He's... Misael... so... yeah...**

**Astral: She refuses to listen to me, so—**

**Me: Not my fault you annoy me! Now review please!**

**Astral: If you would just listen to me for on—**

**Me: Oh hey Astral isn't it time for you to go back into the Key yeah it is so bye!**


	14. Explanations, Complications, and Things

**Me: Well, this was better than last update. No duels. I'm spinning myself in circles!**

**Astral: You'll make yourself dizzy.**

**Me: That's the point! And now my head hurts… I'm pretty sure I don't own Yugioh Zexal. Do I?**

**Astral: No you don't.**

**Me: Oh. Who are you?**

**Astral: (sighs) And this is why you shouldn't spin yourself around so much.**

* * *

**Chapter 14: Explanations, Complications, And Something I Don't Understand**

"Over Hundred Numbers?! What are Over Hundred Numbers?!" Yuma yelled, spitting out his juice.

"Not on my carpet!" Sarah yelled. They were all sitting in Sarah's bedroom ground as Kaito described today's observations.

"Sorry." Yuma wiped his mouth. "Now, uh, what was that you were talking about Kaito?"

Kaito sighed, leaning on the wall. "I dueled someone named Misael today. He had a Numbers card."

"A Numbers…" Astral muttered, floating next to Yuma with his arms crossed.

"Not just any Numbers. An Over Hundred Numbers. Numbers 107, Galaxy-Eyes Tachyon Dragon." Kaito said. "Orbital."

"Confirmed!" Orbital saluted, then projected a video clip of the summoning of the duel from earlier today. It showed the summoning of the Numbers, and then the video went fuzzy, as the shaking began.

"What does this mean?" Shark said. "Isn't there supposed to be only 100 Numbers?"

"Astral. Do you know?" Kotori asked. Astral shook his head.

"This is the first time I've heard of it." He replied. "It's all very strange. For there to be new Numbers here, and for there to be such thing as an Over Hundred Numbers. This is getting strange."

Sarah's eye twitched. "More cards I don't know…" She grumbled. "I knew every card there was. And now ever since you guys came now there are cards I don't know… It's not fair…"

Shark sighed. "What does that have to do with anything?"

"You guys just freaking took away the last thing I liked about me jeez!" She yelled at the purple-haired duelist. "I knew every single card there was, every anime, real life, and game cards but now there's these Over-Hundred Numbers and I DON'T KNOW THEM!"

Shark winced slightly at her shrill voice. "That's not the problem here. What we should be worried about is how we're going to deal with these Barians and their new Numbers."

"They are not someone to be dealt with easily. My duel today proved that." Kaito responded.

"It's too strange." Astral said.

"Yeah." Yuma nodded. "It's enough to make my head burst from all this weirdness!"

"Well, just keep your eyes peeled for anything and tell us if you find anything." Astral said to Shark and Kaito. "We will need to know everything we can to be able to counter them this time."

They all nodded.

"And when we beat these Barians, maybe they'll tell us how to get back to our world." Shark said. "That's perfect! I'll beat them all up!"

"You can't just punch them!" Sarah panicked.

"In a duel!" Shark replied. "Duh!"

Kaito inwardly sighed at the two. "You two are so simple."

"We are not!" They both yelled.

"Um, shouldn't you two calm down?" Kotori asked.

"Not now!" Sarah said, frowning at Kaito. "It's on!"

She grabbed the pillow from her bed and threw it at Kaito's face, making a direct hit and leaving him with a shocked expression on his face. Beside her, Anne giggled and clapped.

Yuma and Kotori stared, mouths open as Shark held back snickers. Anne laughed, picked up a pillow, and threw it at Shark, hitting him in the face too. Now Shark had the same expression as Kaito.

"W-What are you do—" Yuma yelled, only to get interrupted by Sarah grabbing him and using him as a shield against Kaito's oncoming pillow. Sarah leaned out from behind Yuma and stuck out her tongue, and she got hit in the face by Shark's pillow.

"Shouldn't we go do our homework?" Kotori asked, trying to stop an already gone too far fight. Pillows flew across the room as people got hit by them. Kotori sighed, then went to the desk in the corner to try and do the homework while the others yelled at each other.

"Is this how humans express their fun?" Astral shook his head. "I'll never get it."

_**-linebreak-**_

"And this is why you shouldn't have such a violent pillow fight!" Kotori scolded, helping Yuma to put a bandage on his head.

"Kaito's the one who threw it so hard!" He complained.

"That was Ryoga's idea." Kaito said, a bandage on his arm. "He's the one who put Sarah's figurines in the pillows and threw them."

"It's her fault for leaving those all over the place!" Shark rubbed his sore side, which had been hit pretty hard by a giant stuffed shark, ironically.

"You stepped on my mini Yugi and broke off his left arm!" Sarah yelled at him. "And my Kaiba doll's head isn't doing much better either since _SOMEONE_ ahemYumaahem stuffed him in a pillow and whipped him at me!"

"I was trying to hit Shark! You were in the way!"

"Shark was five feet from me! How do you miss that bad?!"

"He was five feet behind you!"

Kotori hit one of Yuma's wounds, making him freeze and double over. "What was that for Kotori?" He said weakly.

"You're blabbering. Calm down for a few seconds, please." Kotori said, wrapping another bandage around his arm where a Yusei figurine had nailed him. "Now don't you have homework?"

"You mean we have homework?"

"No, I mean _you_ have homework. I did mine while you guys were flinging pillows at each other!" Kotori handed him a huge stack of books, which he struggled to hold. "Now it's due Monday, so you should work on it!"

"Okay okay!" Yuma nodded. "Let's just go to the library then. I'll call Shingetsu to come with us. He'll help me!"

Kotori looked at him and sighed.

_**-linebreakofsomesort-**_

"Okay then..." Yuma read out of the textbook. "Analyze this story... The legend of an ancient hero... Long, long ago, there was a group of brave knights who served a certain country. One of them was a hero who rode his beloved steed, Pegasus."

"Oh, that story! I love that story!" Sarah said happily. "It's so cool! The knights, lead by that hero, protected the peace of their country." She recited. "One day, the hero left the castle to go back to his hometown. However, when the hero left, the knights that were left behind decided to overthrow the king and took over the country. With the hero gone, the knights got conceited with their own power and began to deem themselves worthy of being King."

"That's sad..." Kotori said.

"Hearing about the knights rebellion, the hero rushed back to the castle." Sarah continued. "The hero tried to appeal to them that all that time, they had hearts filled with justice, and tried to make them remember their bonds as comrades who fought together. But his former comrades turned their swords against him. The hero couldn't fight his former comrades. He kept refusing to fight back, and thus was struck down by the swords of his own comrades. Then suddenly, the hero's beloved steed, Pegasus, stood in front of the knights to protect his master. With his life, he was trying to protect his master, the Hero. It was impossible for the Hero to abandon Pegasus, and that was the same for Pegasus. He stayed with Pegasus, and together they died."

"Poor hero." Rei said, looking out the window and not looking at them. He didn't sound that emotional.

"The knights were struck to their hearts by the willingness of the hero and Pegasus to sacrifice their lives. They were ashamed of what they did and their desire for rebellion vanished. They buried the hero and the Pegasus with honor, kneeling before the grave, their heads bowed. And then the hero, along with Pegasus's soul, rose to heaven together."

"That seems depressing." Yuma said. "Isn't there any other ones I can do?"

"Yuma-kun, you could also do this one!" Rei handed him a small storybook.

"What's that one?" Yuma asked.

"Let's see, it's," Rei paused, then put the book back underneath his bags. "You know what, let's not do that one!" He laughed nervously.

"Lemme see!" Sarah swipped the book despite his protests, and began reading from it. "A cursed legend of an acursed palace. I see why you don't wanna do this one. Hmm. There was this palace that was owned by this prince who ruled over. From childhood, he didn't believe in kindness and treated everyone with suspicion, until he started to kill all those he was suspicious of. After robbing everyone else of their lives, when he was the only one left, he took his own life. A cursed legend."

Sarah, Kotori, and Rei all shivered. "Well that's creepy." Kotori said.

"Let's just do the pegasus legend." Yuma said, reading the legend over again. "It's a lot nicer. Now, how do you do this…."

_**-linebreakofsomesort-**_

"Finished… finished…" Yuma leaned back in his chair, exhausted. "I finished it!"

"Well, let's just go home then." Sarah shut her textbook and put it into her backpack. "I gotta buy some take out for dinner and then we can go. Whaddya wanna eat?"

"Duel Fuel!" Yuma yelled.

"I don't think that's takeout food Yuma." Kotori said.

"We could find it!"

"Tsukumo Yuma!" They turned to where a voice had yelled Yuma's name, and a man wearing a green Heartland Middle uniform jumped in their path. He had a green Mohawk and a scary expression on his face.

"W-Who are you?" Kotori said. Rei's eyes narrowed.

Astral appeared next to Yuma from the Emperor's Key. "Yuma, be careful. There's something strange about this ma—"

He doubled over suddenly, and winced in pain. "Astral?!" Yuma panicked. "W-What's wrong?"

"I-I don't know…" Astral clutched his side.

"Tsukumo Yuma. I'm Gilag. Duel me." The man said seriously.

"Duel?" Yuma stared at him.

"I'll be taking all of your Numbers. Don't wimp out. Meet me here tomorrow." He tossed Yuma an envelope, then glared at Rei. "Be sure to bring Shingetsu."

"Shingetsu?"

"Why?" Kotori asked.

"What's up?!" Sarah exclaimed.

"I'll beat you both at once." Gliag began to walk away.

"Wait!" Yuma yelled. "Why do I have to bring Shingetsu?!"

"Kk, you guys don't know his true identity, do you." He growled and turned around. "He's the guy who attacked Alit!"

"Attacked?"

"Who's Alit?" Sarah wondered.

"I-I didn't do any such thing!" Rei shouted.

"Yeah! Shingetsu wouldn't do something like that!" Yuma yelled.

"You're going to believe that faker?!" Gilag yelled. "Fine! I'll beat you both tomorrow! You'd better be there!" Then he disappeared into a Barian portal.

Yuma looked at the spot where Gilag just was, then at Shingetsu's scared expression, Kotori and Sarah's confused expressions, at Astral in pain for some unknown reason, and at the card with a location written on it.

"What's going on?" He said.

* * *

**Me: Review…**

**Astral: She spun herself around too much.**

**Me: Alit's somewhere I dunno…**

**Astral: . . . Oh forget it. I'm done.**


	15. Hmmmmmmmmm

**Me: (takes breathe) HELLOOOOOOOOO PEOPLE!**

**Astral: Calm down.**

**Me: No thank you I actually managed to finish this and we are at the plot finally jeez what was I doing all that time! Anyways, I STILL don't own Yugioh Zexal, onto the story, IT'S THE FIFTEENTH CHAPTER DAMNIT I MANAGED TO GET SOMEWHERE WITH THIS!**

* * *

**Chapter 15: Hmmm….**

"Hmm…" Yuma thought.

"Hmm…" Kotori wondered.

"Hmm…" Sarah hummed.

"Aaaah! I don't get it!" Yuma flopped down onto the bed. "Why would some random dude just show up and challenge me to a duel! And what's with the whole Shingetsu thing!"

"Shingetsu-kun wouldn't attack someone, would he?" Kotori asked.

"Of course not! There's no way he could do something like that!"

"Who's this Alit anyways." Sarah said. "I couldn't find anything about him online anyways." She looked around. "Where'd Astral go? Does he know anything?"

"I don't know." Yuma held his pendant. "He suddenly started hurting when we around that guy Gilag and had to go back into the Key to rest."

"That could mean this Gilag is a Barian." Kotori said. "Are you really going to go tomorrow?"

"Yeah." Yuma said. "But I can't bring Shingetsu."

"What? But he was so serious about it! Are you really not going to bring him?" Sarah asked.

"I'm not. So could you try and keep him busy while I go settle things."

"I dunno if that's a good idea though…" Sarah made a face. "Ah well, we can do it, right Kotori?"

Kotori nodded. "Be careful."

"Since when am I not careful!"

". . . I'm not going to answer that."

_**-linebreakofsomesort-**_

"This doesn't make much sense for us either." Misael said to Gilag in the Barian World. "Alit was attacked by someone from a parallel world? Only us Barians and those two annoying Numbers can travel across worlds."

"You're sure Astral beings can't then?" Gilag asked.

"While they exist in all universes at the same time, unlike us, they cannot."

"Tch." Gilag growled. "Then when I defeat them I'll beat the answer out of him!"

Misael looked at him and sighed. "Fine. I have business elsewhere anyways." He disappeared into a Barian portal, and after a while, so did Gilag.

From behind a Barian crystal, Number 96 floated out. "Oh, so that's the deal? You didn't tell us that?"

"You don't need to know information like that." Vector replied. "All that matters is that things keep going our way."

"And you're fine with us Numbers doing that?" 96 asked, smiling wickedly.

"If you wipe out the Astral World, it's good for me too."

"So let's continue then." The Numbers said. "After all you have some things to take care of."

_**-linebreakofsomesort-**_

"Kotori-san, are you sure we shouldn't be worried about Yuma-kun? He had to leave early." Rei asked her in the library.

"Yeah, he just got a cold. He'll be fine after some rest. It would be bad if we went to disturb him." Kotori replied. "Now, onto the next math question…"

Rei didn't seem satisfied with the answer, and then looked at Sarah. "Sarah, do you know about Yuma-kun? We should really go check up on him."

Sarah didn't look at him. "Oooh, he's Yuma. He'll probably be better in a few seconds. There's nothing wrong at all. What's the square root of 2850?"

"53.38539 rounded down, and we should really go to visit Yuma-kun so we can—"

"Oh I'm sure he's fine there's nothing going on he's totally not doing something he didn't want you to know about!" Sarah said quickly. The two stared at her. She covered her mouth when she realized.

"Whoops." She said.

"He went to fight that Barian guy, didn't he?" Rei asked.

"No! No! No he didn't! He totally didn't!" Sarah yelled, waving it away. "Yuma didn't sneak off to fight that weird Gilag guy without you!"

They looked at her.

"Why didn't Yuma-kun trust me?" Rei asked quietly.

"He trusts you! There's really nothing wrong!" Sarah said.

"Yuma just didn't want to involve you in something dangerous like that." Kotori said.

"Where's the duel happening?"

Both girls looked at him.

"Yeah I'm cowardly and useless, and I'm terrible at dueling, but Yuma's my friend! I wish he told me, and we could go together then!"

Kotori nodded. "I know where. Follow me."

"K-Kotori?!"

"I'm worried too." Kotori said to her. "About Yuma and Astral. That Gilag person might give Yuma a hard time since Shingetsu's not there, and we need to be able to trust that they can do this."

Sarah stared at her. "Kotori…."

"Let's go!" Kotori said, and Rei nodded.

"Oh jeez." Sarah mumbled, then followed them.

_**-linebreakofsomesort-**_

"It's over here! Let's go!" Kotori yelled as they ran down the street. She lead them down a corner until they reached a large open space in the middle of an abandoned factory. "There they are!" She said, seeing Yuma and Astral talking with an angry Gilag.

"Please wait!" Shingetsu yelled as the three of them arrived. They stared at them.

"Shingetsu?!" Yuma stared. "Why are you here? This isn't just some regular duel!"

"But he said I needed to come too!" Shingetsu said back.

"Well…"

"So you can't trust me? So you don't need me?"

"That's not it!"

"I know I can't duel well, but I'll try my best!" Shingetsu was near tears. "Don't leave me out!"

Sarah stared. "Don't leave… your friends….out?" She whispered. "Friends…"

Yuma smiled apologetically. "Sorry." He put a hand on Shingetsu's shoulder. "I got it! Let's do this together!"

Shingetsu smiled, along with Kotori.

"But don't get too reckless, I'll protect you." Yuma said to him, who nodded happily.

"Enough already!" Gilag yelled. "You guys shouldn't think you're getting of easily!" He threw something into the air. "Barian's Sphere Field, expand!"

A red sphere appeared, growing larger and larger in the air. It absorbed Yuma and Shingetsu, and Astral. Kotori and Sarah ran back away from it.

"T-They're going to be okay up there, right?" Sarah asked.

"We just have to believe. We just have to believe in them." Kotori said. Sarah yelped and jumped back when the Sphere Field began rumbling again, and Gilag transformed into his Barian form.

"Okay, okay, Gilag's a Barian, and Yuma and Shingetsu can beat him, they can, they'll probably be able to…" Sarah muttered. "They can do it, they can do it, oh why am I here! I just wanted to live a regular life! Not watch people go into sorta life-threatning situations because of card games!"

Kotori looked at her, then back at the duel. "This isn't going to be easy for Yuma and Astral. Hopefully they can do it."

They watched as Gilag summoned his own Numbers, Number 106: Giant Hand. It was a giant hand made out of rock, with lasers on its fingertips and in the middle of its pam.

"Oh my god. An Over-Hundred Numbers." Kotori stared.

"Another card I don't know. Over-Hundred Numbers shouldn't exist. This is making less and less sense." Sarah stared. "I don't know who's Alit, I don't know Over-Hundred Numbers, I don't know this Gilag dude, I don't even know how you guys are able to duel here! Shingetsu what are you doing!" She screamed at him as both his and Yuma's lifepoints dropped.

"Yuma!" Kotori yelled.

"H-Hey. Yuma and Astral aren't supposed to be arguing, right?" Sarah said. "They're partners. They're friends… So why are they arguing? This isn't supposed to happen…" She trailed off as both her and Kotori stared, horrified as Astral dropped, flickering.

"Astral!" She screamed.

"W-What?" Sarah mumbled as Astral disappeared back into the Emperor's Key.

Yuma looked at the Key, then took it off. "Kotori! Take it!" He threw the Key at her, which she caught in her hands. Kotori looked up at him.

"Please take care of Astral! I can't lose this duel!" Yuma yelled. The hole where the Key had gone through sealed up, and then the Sphere Field began spinning faster, the red cards it was made up of more visible. It blocked up their view off the duel.

"W-What's happening in there?" Sarah said. "Yuma! Shingetsu! What's going on in there!" She got no reply.

Kotori held the Key tight in her hands. "Yuma… Astral…"

"Damnit! So… all we can do is wait and hope for the best?"

"Yeah…"

_**-linebreak (sorry not writing this I'm too lazy for that stuff)-**_

Finally, the rumbling of the Sphere Field stopped, as it shrunk. Yuma and Rei appeared from it, landing on the ground.

"Yuma!" Kotori yelled happily rushing over to them, as Yuma waved at them.

"You did it!" Sarah breathed out. "Oh good you did it! I though you would, blow it or something!"

"Ahehe…" Shingetsu laughed nervously. "I guess I made a lot of amateur mistakes, and Yuma-kun had to help me get through all of them, but we did it in the end!"

"Huh, y-yeah!" Yuma nodded. "We beat him!"

"Did you find out why he was all angry at you?" Sarah asked.

"Nah, he kept going on about some Alit person, which didn't make sense." Yuma sighed. Kotori handed him the Key, and he took it thankfully. "Thanks Kotori."

"You're welcome. Just be careful with Astral." Kotori said.

"Yeah." Yuma put the pendant back around his neck, and gazed at it, no doubt thinking about Astral.

"W-Well, let's not stay all depressed!" Sarah said. "Celebrate the win!"

"That's right! Let's just all think positively and we'll be fine!" Rei added.

"Yeah exactly! I'll get some Chinese take out for dinner, you guys head back. Rei, you wanna go with them?"

"Yes!" Rei nodded. "Come on Yuma-kun!" He grabbed Yuma's arm, and began pulling him down the street away, with Kotori following.

And as they eventually ran out of sight, Sarah stopped waving to them, turned around, and took a few deep breathes.

"Oh my god what's happening…" She mumbled to herself before walking down the sidewalk.

_**-linebreakofsomesort-**_

"One mocha cookie crumble Frappuccino please." Sarah said at the front of the line of the Starbucks line. She got her drink, and took a long sip from the cold drink, trying to hopefully freeze everything in her brain. While it didn't work, it did taste great. She sighed, then took another long sip.

"What has my life turned into." She mumbled, beginning to walk out the store. "Things are not supposed to turn out like this, this is getting out of hand…"

And then she crashed into a man. "Ack!"

Her drink fell out of her hand, and the man caught it before it dropped onto the ground, as well as catching her with his other hand, pulling her up. Sarah rubbed her head.

"Ugh, sorry sorry sorry!" She yelled, bowing her head.

"N-No problem." The man said. He handed her the Frappuccino, and she took it.

"I'm really sorry, I wasn't looking!" She continued.

"Don't worry about it…." The man said. He looked strange, around 16, with dark clothes and spiky hair, the bangs black and the back spikes pointed downwards a pinkish-red. "You wanna sit down together?"

Sarah stared at him. Her face turned red slightly. "S-Sure…"

"I'm sorry for bumping into you. What's your name?"

"Sarah Walker…"

"Nice to meet you Sarah." The man held out his hand, and she shook it nervously. "I'm Novem Ennea, but everyone calls me Force."

* * *

**Me: HA HA HA! I'M SO EVIL!**

**Astral: . . . I'm going to Yuma now.**

**Me: Huh, oh, sure, bye Astral! And now, my usual tradition of karaoke!**

**(GO WAY GO WAY / FoZZtone)**

_**Tsumaranai no wa sekai no hou ka  
Honki janai jibun no hou ka  
(Do you understand?)  
Do I understand?  
Sudeni kotae wa sorotteiru yo**_

_**Ugokadashitara tomaranaide  
Makenagara demo kangaerunda  
(Do you understand?)  
I understand!  
Gyakuten no houteishiki wa sorotteiru yo**_

_**Kanawanai koto ga fuan?  
Tameshiterunda ne, kono ore o  
Tsumaranai to itte kamawanai  
Shippai wa konna toko de tomaru koto  
Come on! Ga, ga, ga, guys and dolls  
Go, go, go, gō my way  
Oh, oh, oh, ōver ray!  
Tobira wa jōji kimi no tame ni hirakareru**_

_**Chikara awase gō way gō way  
(I understand!)  
Namida wa nō way nō way  
Chikara no kagiri way gō way  
(I understand!)  
Mō yūki wa desorotteru  
(You understand!) hazu da  
Gō Way Gō Way**_

_**Kawaranai no wa sekai no hou ka  
Ganbatte iru jibun no hou ka  
Do I understand?  
Dare ga kotae o wakatteru darou**_

_**Ugokidashitara tomaranai de**_  
_**Makenagara demo kangaerunda**_  
_**You Understand Kimi wa**_  
_**Taisetsu na tomodachi dakara**_

_**Kanawanai koto ga fuan?**_  
_**Tameshiterunda ne, kono ore o**_  
_**Tsumaranai to itte kamawanai**_  
_**Shippai wa konna toko de tomaru koto**_  
_**Come on! Ga, ga, ga, guys and dolls**_  
_**Go, go, go, gō my way**_  
_**Oh, oh, oh, ōver ray**_  
_**Tobira wa jōji kimi no tame ni hirakareru**_

_**Chikara awase**_  
_**Gō way gō way**_  
_**(I understand!)**_  
_**Namida wa nō way nō way**_  
_**Chikara no kagiri way gō way**_  
_**(I understand!)**_  
_**Mō yūki wa desorotteru**_  
_**(You understand!) hazu da**_  
_**Gō Way Gō Way!**_

**Me: I'm honestly not sure if that's the full version or not, since I found two versions of it. One is 3 minutes, and the other one's eight. This is the lyrics for the one only 3 minutes. On another note, my little sister finds this song weird while I enjoy it very much! But anyways, I pat myself on the back for getting this far!**

**Eat some cake, have some cookies, I have leftovers from math class! They give out cookies in my math class and I find that awesome! Review and see you next chapter!**


	16. Conversations With Strangers

**Me: Ahehehehehe…. If anyone wants a recap, go back and read the last chapter of Forgotten Memories. That was Force's first appearance, since it was so long ago nobody remembers it.**

**Astral: I told you not to procrastinate so much.**

**Me: Nooooooo but it's so much fun to procrastinate! But seriously, if you wanna know more about Force, read that last chapter again.**

* * *

**Chapter 16: Conversations With Strangers**

"So, uh, nice to meet you… Force…" Sarah shook his hand. "So, um…"

"Why don't we sit down."

"Good idea!"

The two sat down at a table in the corner, right in front of a window. Sarah shifted around in her seat uncomfortably, not sure what to do. She wasn't programmed to deal with people of the opposite gender! Yuma was enough, and with Shark, Kaito, and Shingetsu, they practically overloaded her boy circuits. How did this even work again?

"Are you… from around here?" She began slowly.

"Not really. Just coming around for some business I have to take care of." Force replied.

"Oh. That's… cool."

"Yeah."

There was that awkward silence again. "Thanks for… saving my drink." She said.

"You were muttering to yourself so much you didn't notice me." Force said. Sarah's face went red slightly.

"I wasn't muttering that much, was I?"

"You said something about annoying boys. And tv cartoons. Not sure what those two subjects have to do with each other…"

Sarah collapsed onto the table, groaning. She sat up, then began drinking furiously. "Brain freeze brain freeze!"

"You shouldn't drink that fast then."

"I was doing it on purpose…"

"You want a brain freeze on purpose?"

"Maybe if my brain freezes enough, all those annoying thoughts will leave it."

Force looked at her. "Sure… So what's so annoying?"

Sarah sighed. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

"There are a lot of weird things out there. I've seen most of them. I'd probably believe anything you told me."

Sarah looked at him, then burrowed her face in her hands. "Where do I start with all this?" She took a deep breath. "Well, it all really started randomly when I went home one day, to see this _character from a tv show standing in my room! _And it pretty much went downhill from there."

Force stared at her. "You're sure you didn't just hit your head?"

Sarah groaned. "See, I told you you wouldn't believe it! I don't really believe it myself but that's what happened! Just one day, poof! Tsukumo Yuma and Astral in my room! And then in a few days, Kotori, Shark and Kaito as well!"

Force's eyes widened at her for a second, then narrowed. He blinked, his face returning to neutral. "Well… that's very strange."

"You probably don't even know them. Yugioh Zexal anime, bit of a small fandom compared to those like Naruto and One Piece, but it's a really good and fun one." She sighed. "And now my life is chaos because of them."

"So… if you put it in simple terms you have crazy cousins over and you're thinking they're characters from Yugioh Zexal?"

"…Sure let's say that." Sarah said.

Force thought about something, then looked back at her. "So, what are they like?"

"Huh?"

"Well, what are they like? You can probably figure out a strategy to deal with them."

Sarah sighed. "Well, there's Yuma. He's, well, Yuma. Over excitable, too much energy, happy happy happy, naïve, oblivious, hasty, cheerful, and thinks that nothing is impossible. So he literally challenges himself with everything! He yells Kattobingu and tries all those challenges he can't do! It gets really annoying."

"What's wrong with that?" Force said, almost sharply. Sarah looked at him strangely.

"Well, it's just there's no way he can do it, so why bother trying!"

"You never know until you try."

Sarah looked out the window, not meeting his eyes. That had hit a nerve. "That's just a bunch of stupid stuff they tell you in school and motivational videos to make you feel better about yourself… It's not true…"

"Have you ever tested that theory?"

"….no…"

Force sighed. "So Yuma is too cheerful and naïve. Seems tough."

"Well, he really cares about friendship and his friends, so I guess he's not all bad… he just drives me insane sometimes. And then there's Astral, just floating there, not understanding a thing. And one time he peeked over my shoulder when I was reading one of my fanfics… and asked what one of the words meant, and I am NOT explaining that!"

"So Astral doesn't understand things." Force said, looking at her with contempt. "And you were reading something dirty."

"I was not!" She yelled, her face turning red.

"Well, I guess it would be normal for girls your age."

"I said I wasn't!"

"Right, right." Force said sarcastically. "But this Astral seems more naïve and clueless than this place's Yuma."

"I guess… in a lot of ways he's WAY smarter than Yuma, but Astral's stranger too. He's been hurting for some reason none of us can figure out lately, and he gets really annoying sometimes due to the fact that he's—" She paused. "Um, let's say Astral's both me and Yuma's imaginary friend! He came from another world called the Astral World and Yuma needs to collect Trading Cards to restore his memories! Because he has no memories, Astral doesn't know a thing about human stuff!"

"Yeah… I know that feeling… having to explain everything…"

"You do?"

Force caught himself. "I can sorta imagine what that feeling is like." He said. "Don't know it actually, but I can imagine it."

"Sure." Sarah shrugged. That probably wasn't the case, but she didn't really want to go deep into the subject, so she moved on. "But, Yuma and Astral are best friends, I guess. I honestly can't really think of anything that could break them apart, since they've been through so much together. Bit jealous of it really…."

"Jealous of a relationship with your imaginary friend?" Force raised an eyebrow.

"N-No! It's not that! It's just…" Sarah's voice got quieter. "Well, I'm not exactly the most popular girl… not really sure how all that friendship stuff works out… and when I see Yuma and Astral's bond… I wish… I could have something like that too with somebody… I don't really got anything to show for myself, but I hate being alone really…. Been alone, and then all the sudden they come along and crash into my life… it's crazy, that's what it is."

Force looked at her in what might have been pity. "So, what are the others like?" He asked, mercifully moving on and sparing her from having to talk about that subject any longer.

"Well, Shark and Kaito are okay, nothing too wrong with them." Sarah said while breathing out. "Kotori's really nice. And then there's… Shingetsu Rei…"

"Shingetsu?" There was suspicion in his voice, but she didn't recognize it.

"Yeah Shingetsu. Some kid we stumbled upon one day. For some reason he knows about Yuma, which should be impossible, is even cheerier than Yuma, is always 'meaning well', and is a bit too innocent for his age." Sarah said. "And his hair's orange. And it sticks up at the back, pointing into something like a carrot bundle. It's gravity defying. It also makes no sense."

"Shingetsu…Rei…" A flash of anger came over his face, and Sarah instantly back up in her seat when she noticed it. It disappeared as quickly as it came, and then there was a calm, normal, human expression on his face again. It was probably her imagination playing tricks on her, but that anger was really terrifying. She was imagining things again, great. As if having tv characters in her house wasn't enough, she was imagining things now.

"Well, thanks for listening to me ramble. Sorry it made no sense." Sarah said apologetically. "I gotta go, buy dinner for the gang and everything."

"No problem." Force said knowingly. "It was nice to get to know you and the others."

"Ahehe…" Sarah stood up, waving. "Thanks again!"

"I gotta go now too. It was nice." Force stood up as well, and the two of them walked to the doors.

_**-linebreakofsomesort-**_

Oh my god it burned. It burned so much. His entire body ached, but of course, that was to be expected. After all that he had done, the aftershocks were coming _now? _Not now! Not when he was so close to charging enough power.

He leaned on the side of the wall of a building, his vision fuzzy. His head swam, and he wanted to throw up. He wanted to lie down and never get up again, but he couldn't. Fuelling the duel disks to work in this world when they couldn't originally had taken up more of his strength than he had imagined, and two of them had taken place in a Barian Sphere Cube, which just made it worse.

He panted heavily, his backside on the wall to stop himself from falling over. Human bodies weren't designed to take in all of that energy, but he had to deal with it. He had to get to Yuma. He had to get to Yuma as soon as possible, before it was too late.

He took a deep breath. Yuma should be around the corner, according to his senses. All he had to do was get to Yuma, and everything would be alright…. All he had to do was… get there…

He took slow steps, leaning on the wall and breathing heavily, his head heating up. A fever? Now? No, he was nearly there. He couldn't let it stop him now.

He stepped around the corner of the wall, and gathered up all the strength he had. "Yuma!" He yelled, expecting to see the black and red haired boy.

A thirteen year old girl with black hair and a shocked expression stared at him instead. Not Yuma. Next to her stood a man with black bangs and red hair spiked downwards. "Force?"

Force looked just as shocked as she did, but then scowled, his face full of anger. "You…."

He didn't have enough strength to respond, and he collapsed onto the ground, losing consciousness quickly. Just a… little break…

_**-linebreakofsomesort-**_

"Oh my god! Are you alright!" Sarah yelled as the boy collapsed in front of her. Force growled next to her, but she didn't notice. "Oh no, oh no, what do I do!"

"I'll see you around then." Force said quickly, and walked away as fast as he could.

"Wait, you're just leaving!" Sarah yelled after him, although he was already gone. She looked back and forth between the boy and where Force used to be. She grabbed her phone and called 911. "Um, ambulance! Starbucks! Somebody! There's someone really injured here!"

_**-linebreakofsomesort-**_

"He's waking up he's waking up!" The boy opened his eyes to see the girl from before yell to no one. "Oh you okay? You suddenly collapsed in the middle of the road! The ambulance came quickly, thank gods…"

"This is, the hospital?" The boy said slowly. The girl nodded.

"I'm Sarah. What were you doing that made you so tired! All the doctors checked you over and the only thing they found wrong was extreme exhaustion, like you ran 10 marathons in a row without breaks, water, food, or sleep!"

The boy ignored her. He needed to find Yuma, and yet when he thought he did it was just Force meddling again.

"But why'd you yell Yuma?" Sarah asked. "Did you want to find him or something?"

"You know Yuma?" The boy asked suddenly. Sarah looked guilty, like she said something she shouldn't have.

"U-Um, depends on which Yuma…. There's a lot of Yuma's out there…"

"Yuma Tsukumo. Tsukumo Yuma. And Astral. You know them?"

"Well, sorta… they're at my house right now…"

"Really?!" The boy sat up, then winced in pain, grabbing his back as it burned and ached. Sarah pushed him back down.

"You can't go anywhere, you're in the hospital!" Sarah protested. "You gotta rest up for at least a week or something!"

"I don't care! It's really important!"

Sarah stared at him. "Who are you and why do you need to talk to Yuma so badly? How do you even know about Astral?"

The boy didn't meet her eyes. "I… girls really are complicated everywhere…"

"That's not an answer!"

The boy sighed. "It's about how Yuma and Astral got here, how they can get back, I can't really say much more than that. There's a long story, and it's really complicated. But if I don't warn them, things will get worse and worse. And as for who I am." He tried to smile. "You can call me One."

* * *

**Me: And there we go! One is back! Force disappeared! I confuse myself with this plot sometimes but it makes me laugh so much when I think about what happens next!**

**Astral: . . . sigh**

**Me: Ignore Astral, and review the chapter! I'll be here having fun have a Yugioh Zexal marathon on my computer! Yay Zexal! **

_**YOU SHOULD WATCH ZEEEEEEEEXAAAAAAAAALLLLLL!**_


	17. One Two Three Four, Barians Declare War

**Me: ... I'm currently hiding underneath my bed... in case any of you freak out at me later because of this chapter... and because Astral's currently scaring me because of episode 106... I will be under here until further notice...**

* * *

**Chapter 17: One, Two, Three, Four, The Barians Now Declare War**

"Um, okay then…. So… One…" The name felt weird to say. This was the whole Arclight situation all over again for Sarah, with the names Three, Four, and Bui which should have been pronounced Five. "Are you alright?"

"It'll take a while for me to recover my strength, but I'll be alright in the end." One replied. He tried to sit up, then winced and fell down again. "But at this rate, I won't be able to talk with Yuma."

Sarah stared at him, trying to figure him out. Her eyes widened. "Oh my god. I got it! I know why you know Yuma!" One looked at her in shock. "You were one of the extremely minor characters in the background of one of the episodes who got sent here by accident too!"

One made a face. "What?"

"That must be it! Although I don't remember you… you must have not been named. Although…" Sarah's hand went to her chin as she thought hard, "I think I would remember a hairstyle like yours… you could almost cosplay as Yuma!"

"Cos…play…"

"Yeah! Your hair's bangs are sorta like Yuma's, although their shorter. And your hair sticks out at the back, although its sticking down instead of up. I guess that makes sense, since otherwise it would defy gravity and that makes no sense. I've tried using hair gel although it doesn't work! Jeez how do those wig makers do it!" Sarah ranted. "Oh! Once you get better we should cosplay together and go to a convention! That'd be fun!"

"Um, that's… not the case." One said slowly.

"It isn't? But going to a convention would be so fun!"

What kind of girl had he been stuck with? "Look, I've got a bunch of things I need to tell Yuma. Can you pass along a message?"

"Yeah, of course." Sarah nodded.

"Do you know about the Yugioh tournament coming up soon? The one where a winner gets a new Number card?"

"Oh yeah, Yuma's been going on about joining it for a while. Why?"

"Be careful. Be careful about the people who enter, be careful about the people who are holding it, and be careful of the prize."

"The Numbers? Why? It's just a card here."

"This is no regular Numbers. Or just any regular card either. Be wary of it."

Sarah made a face. "Maybe back in the cartoon world, but this is real life here."

"Your real life. To you, this is real life and what I'm talking about is cartoon. To us, this place is cartoon, and what you call cartoon, well that's our real life."

She stared. "I-I, well,"

"I need to rest up, take a nap. I'll be fine. You can go now." One said, closing his eyes and pulling the sheets up. Sarah stood up, looking at him with suspicion and confusion. She opened her mouth to ask something, then stopped and turned away. As she was halfway to the door, she heard him speak again.

"One more thing, well, two more things." One said. "See, Number 96 might come around to cause trouble, so when that happens you need to—"

"Woah woah woah woah woah! Woah! Woah woah woah pause right there!" Sarah yelled, pointing at him. "What about creepy Black Mist?! He's loose?!"

"Yeah, didn't Yuma tell you—"

"No he did not tell me!" Sarah screamed. "Oh my god oh my god oh my god this is bad this is SO bad!"

"You know how bad he is?"

"I've read enough fanfiction to know what his definition of trouble is!" She yelled, her face turning red. "Oh no, what if he comes and does, all _that_, in the middle of the night!"

One stared at her. "What have you been reading in the internet?"

"I've read enough to know what he does with those creepy tentacles of his!"

He sighed. "I'm pretty sure you shouldn't be reading those things at your age. Aren't they rated M for 18+?"

Her face turned red. "W-What kind of messed up things do you think I've been reading?!"

"Stuff that includes tentacles, fanfiction, Black Mist, and things you shouldn't be reading at your age. What are you, 14?"

"13…" Sarah mumbled. "And I have not been reading things like that!"

"You say that… although your face is all red…" One sighed again. "But just be careful, he could appear anywhere."

"Yeah, like a dark alley… or at night in my house…"

"Not the time for your fantasies." One said. "He has more things going on than it seems."

"Mmmhmmm…" Sarah nodded, not completely believing it. "So what's the next thing?"

"Be careful about Shingetsu." One said. She made a face. "He's more than he seems."

"Aaaaand, you can't tell me straight out because?"

He sighed. "It would disrupt a lot of things. Besides, even if I told you, you wouldn't believe it."

"What do you want me to believe about him?"

"What is Shingetsu to you?"

She thought about it. "Um, Shingetsu's a comic relief, a fanboy of Yuma, a kid who's even stupider than Yuma although he's really funny and cute at times, a kid who tries to be nice but messes up a lot, and I guess I could sorta call him a friend."

"And that is why you would never believe me."

Sarah made a face at him. "Do you make a habit of confusing others, or is it just me you like annoying."

"It could be both." One said. He closed his eyes in the hospital bed, and Sarah took that as a hint that the conversation was done, so she left the room. As soon as she was gone, One opened his eyes, and looked at the bedside next to him, where his deck was. He grabbed it and flipped through the cards to a problem.

"One, we have a problem." He said.

_I heard. Force is meddling._

"Along with the so-called Shingetsu." He growled. "Attacking the link between them. Using dirty tricks… figures he'd do something like that."

_So what are you going to do? You can't exactly fight him in this state._

"And he still believes the Barians will help him. No matter how many times I tell him." He sighed. "And since he isn't working fast enough, they decided to involve Shingetsu in it. Just like so many other worlds…" He looked down. "This always happens. And I thought things could be different in this world…"

_There's still ways. At this rate, there isn't going to be many left. _

"And I would have been one of them if it wasn't for you." He thought about it, smiling slightly. "One of them. One. Irony."

_Not the time, you know._

"Having a little laugh isn't bad. It's actually quite refreshing, considering all we had to go through."

_Rest up. As soon as we're recovered, we have to get going._

"Got it got it." He put the deck back on the table, looking out the window. It was dark. He pulled the blankets up and closed his eyes. "G'night One."

_Good night._

_**-linebreak-**_

"Done and done and done!" Yuma said, clicking the button on the computer, sending the application.

"Hey! I'm back!" Sarah yelled as she entered the house, holding two plastic bags full of food. She set them down on the table, then walked over to them. "Whatchya doing?"

"Sending in application for that cool duel tournament! I can get a Numbers from it!" Yuma said.

"It'll be so cool! Yuma-kun will definitely win!" Shingetsu cheered. Sarah looked at him, at his cheery expression, thinking about what One had said.

"Um, Shingetsu…" She began.

"What is it?" He asked happily.

She opened her mouth, but no words came out. She couldn't say it. "N-Nothing." She said, opening the bags. "So, who want's dinner?"

"I do! I do now!" Yuma yelled. Kotori sighed next to him.

"Of course you do." She said.

The four of them sat around the table, eating the take out. "So, where's Kaito and Shark?" Sarah asked.

"Kaito's still researching, and he had Shark go out to help him." Kotori replied.

"How's Astral?"

Yuma looked down at his Key, holding it gently. "I don't know. He's been inside all afternoon. Apparently the Barian Sphere Cube knocked a lot out of him. Maybe if we get that new Number, he'll get better!"

"That could work." Kotori said.

"So it's settle! Me and Sarah'll go and win that Numbers!"

Sarah froze mid-bite. "What?"

"Oh, I signed you up too! Me and Shingetsu thought it would be bad if you got left out." Yuma said, with Shingetsu nodding behind him. "Plus Kotori and Shingetsu aren't that good duelists, and you managed to win all of those cards and Numbers here, you must be pretty good! We're both going to that duel tournament!"

Sarah stared at him, not moving. Her head hit the table, and she screamed.

_**-linebreak (originally gonna end the chapter here but figured what the heck continue!)-**_

"Okay! Let's win some Numbers!" Yuma cheered in front of the mall. Him and the others stood in front of the downtown shopping mall, where the tournament was happening. Next to him, Sarah was breathing heavily, bundled up in the largest coat he had ever seen.

"Kay, kay, kay, it's just dueling, just duel, easy, simple, calm down, yeah… it'll be alright…" She muttered. "Oh jeez oh jeez oh gods oh gods oh gods…"

"Why am I here?" Shark complained.

"Why couldn't Shark do it instead of me!" Sarah yelled.

"I don't care about things like this." Shark replied.

"Why couldn't Kaito do it instead of me!"

"Kaito's busy trying to figure out how to get home. He and Orbital are working overtime." Kotori said.

Sarah looked back and forth between all of them. She groaned, yelled, and punched the wall, then shook her knuckles out to try and ease the pain, the knuckles bruised and scraped.

"Let's go!" They all went inside, Kotori dragging Sarah.

At a sign-up desk inside the mall, Yuma went up to the guy there. "Yuma Tsukumo and Sarah Walker, here!" The guy wrote down their names, then waved them into an area packed with people.

"Wow. Didn't think there'd be this many people." Kotori said. Sarah was panicking next to her, freaking out anytime anyone came near her.

"Sarah?" Sarah jumped, turning around to see Shingetsu looking at her. She took a deep breath.

"Yeah Shingetsu?"

"Can we talk?"

Sarah looked around nervously. "Um, about…?"

"I know how to get rid of your anxiety!" He replied happily. Sarah mentally breathed out. Oh, it was just that.

"Sure." She nodded. "I'll be gone you guys!"

"Get back before it starts!" Yuma said. The two of them pushed out of the crowd, then went outside to the back of the mall.

"So, Shingetsu, what've you got?" She asked when they were alone.

"Well, they designed the competition a bit strangely. See, they're going to have one contestant use the new Numbers throughout the competition, and if that person won they could keep it. Although if they lost they would give the card to the winner. They asked me to give it to you."

He held out a card, and she stared at it.

"Oh my god oh my god OH MY GOD!" She screamed, taking it. "THIS IS SO COOL! I'VE NEVER SEEN THIS CARD BEFORE, and although I'm kinda getting used to it, OH MY GOD!"

"I'm glad you like it. So I'll lend you some other cards too to help."

"Really?" Sarah looked at him happily, and he nodded.

"They should help. After all, you've never been a good duelist."

Huh? Sarah looked at him funny. He continued. "You've been avoiding this all day, and panic around crowds, people, and small places. It's honestly sad."

Sarah blinked.

"Despite you obviously being socially and emotionally lacking, you always seem to be able to get to annoying loopholes." He said. "You're naivety and stupidity is honestly surprising, in some ways even more than Yuma's. But despite all that, you're still able to struggle and fight. You've made contact with him. You heard him talk, didn't you? If he gets his way, my plan won't work out fully as I planned it. It's getting in my way."

He took out two more cards, and she stared at them.

"W-Wha…" She looked at him in shock. "S-Shinge…. H-How do you…."

"Hmm? Whatever are you talking about?" He said playfully. Her head hurt, as she looked back and forth between the cards and him.

"Y-You…" Her eyes widened.

"Don't worry. I said I know how to get rid of your anxiety, and it does that. Although…" He laughed.

Sarah's chest hurt as she looked at the card, and she grabbed it. "You, you little!" She yelled. "You, you…" Her eyes glazed over as she took the cards, looking at them blankly. "All for the... sake of the... Ba...rian... World..."

"Dirty tricks." Force scoffed from behind her.

"They work, so what's the problem?"

Force frowned, and looked at Sarah, who wasn't moving, then back at the orange-haired deceiver, who smiled back at him. "We got ourselves a perfect weapon to destroy Yuma-kun with, and if that doesn't work I have a backup too!"

"I'll defeat this Yuma. We don't need your other plan."

"Eh? But it's so fun!"

"Only you would think that _that_ is fun." Force took Sarah's arm, and began dragging her away. "I'm going now, and sending her back."

Vector smirked as he watched the boy leave with Sarah. Honestly, Force really was too naïve sometimes. Everything in his plan was going just as planned. Poor Yuma. Poor, poor Yuma. He had no idea what was going to happen next.

None of them had any idea what was going to happen next. And that's why his plan was working so well.

* * *

**Me: . . . So. . . I'll be hiding underneath my bed now. From both readers and Astral. . . Review… cause I'm leaving to a place with no signal or wifi and am going to be stuck there until Wednesday. I'm sorry!**


	18. Chaotic Tournament

**Me: Well, I got this chapter up. And I'll probably run away from all of you at the end of the chapter. I do not own Yugioh Zexal or Zexal II, or I would have probably killed Vector already. Just out of spite.**

* * *

**Chapter 18: Chaotic Tournament (I mean it literally)**

"This is so weird!" Yuma said. "How is this exciting? We're just dueling on a mat! There's no AR or anything!"

"Yuma, they obviously don't have things like this here, so could you please be quiet?" Kotori asked. The five of them sat at a table in the food court, eating during the break of the tournament.

"It's pathetic." Shark said, taking a bite out of his hamburger. "They don't have technology advanced enough like we do."

Sarah hit the back of his head, and he choked slightly before glaring at her. "What was that for?!"

"Payback." She said, sipping her soda.

"But still, good job for making it all the way to the semi-finals, Yuma-kun!" Shingetsu said, sitting next to her. "That Numbers is as good as yours!"

"Yeah!" Yuma nodded. "You hear that Sarah? I'm not losing to you!"

Sarah looked at him and blinked. "Oh, okay."

"Oh come on! That's all the reaction I get?!"

"What did you expect?"

"Something more pumped up!" Yuma complained. "You made it too, and I'm not going to lose, so that means you are! Aren't you going to say something like, 'oh I'm not going to lose either'? Come on!"

"I don't really see the point. It's just a duel." Sarah said.

"Well, either way, I'm still not losing!"

"Okay."

Yuma frowned, ripping open a booster pack and looked at the five cards. "Hey, I think these are good cards!"

"No they're not. They're all commons." Sarah sighed. Yuma sighed, disappointed. Sarah pulled out five cards from her backpack and handed them to him. "Here, I pulled some that are okay from my booster, although I don't need them. You can take it."

"Seriously?! Yes!" Yuma yelled, taking the cards and putting them into his deck. "Thanks!"

"Sure." Sarah shrugged. "I don't need them, and I doubt just five cards'll make much of a difference."

"But still, good job for both of you getting this far!" Shingetsu said. "If you think positively, you'll both win!"

"Shingetsu, they can't both win. That just wouldn't work." Kotori said.

"Aww, but that would be so nice!" He said, before glancing at Sarah who had a neutral expression. He smiled, then continued eating his fries.

_**-linebreak (sometime later)-**_

"And then Hope attacks your dragon!" Yuma said. His opponent punched into his calculator some numbers, the sighed disappointedly.

"You win." He said, gathering up his cards. He was 17, with brown hair and a slightly overweight figure. Yuma cheered, putting his cards back into his deck case. "Not many people your age come here to play. You're good."

"Thanks!" Yuma said. "Okay then! I'm gonna win and get that Numbers!"

"Yeah, you do that…" Sarah said blankly.

Yuma checked the board of matches. According to it, since he just won, the final match would be… "Sarah, you're good?!"

"That is an insult, you know." She said. "What, the WDC champion scared?"

"No. I can't wait!" Yuma said. He looked around. The other participants who had lost were watching them.

"They're both kids…" He heard one mutter. "How the hell'd this happen?" He frowned, and took a step forwards before Shark put a hand in front of him.

"Don't." Shark said. "Show them instead. Idiots who don't know the first thing about it."

"Okay then, the final match of the tournament is going to be between Yuma Tsukumo and Sarah Walker." The store manager said, looking at the board. Yuma held up his hand. "Yes?"

"Hey, can we try dueling differently for this?" He asked. The manager raised an eyebrow.

"How?"

"With these!" Yuma took out his duel disk, and a white one that Sarah had once made for a convention.

"Fake duel disk?"

"No! Real ones that work!" Yuma said. "These work, so why not!"

"Um, if they work I don't see why not…"

"Yes!" He cheered, throwing the white one at Sarah. "Okay then! We're dueling with these!"

Sarah stared at him. "Oh you've got to be kidding me."

So as he tried to explain how it would work, nobody noticed a ball of light zip amongst them, flying into Yuma's deck case and glowing with golden light.

_**-linebreak-**_

And so, everyone gathered on the roof of the mall as the two of them looked at each other, holding the duel disks.

"Yuma, I've told you. This is a fake. A cosplay. It isn't going to work." Sarah said. "Stuff like that doesn't work here."

"Oh come on, it's worked up until now! Let's try!" Yuma said. Sarah fiddled with it, sighing. She didn't seem surprised when it activated and attached itself to her arm. They didn't have the D-Gazers, so they were using regular holograms so everyone could see.

"Yuma." He jumped as Astral appeared next to him.

"A-Astral! Are you alright?"

Astral nodded. "For now. I don't know what's been hurting my body, but it's likely to be the Barian energy around. We need to focus on this duel. It could be tough. Sarah seems strange."

"She does?" Yuma looked at Sarah, who was drawing her hand and looking at it blankly.

"Well? Aren't you going to duel?" Sarah asked.

"Yeah!" Yuma yelled. "Duel disk, set!" His red duel disk activated, springing onto his arm. "Let's go!"

"DUEL!" They yelled.

**Sarah: 8000**

**Yuma: 8000**

"I'm first. Draw." Sarah said, drawing her card without feeling. "I set one monster facedown, and set two cards facedown. I end my turn."

"That's it?" Yuma asked. "That's too simple! It's my turn! Draw!"

"Yuma. There's obviously something wrong here. Three cards without any activating." Astral said. "We need to proceed with caution at the beginning."

"Kay then! I summon Gagaga Magician!" Yuma yelled. The magician dressed in black clothing, with chains floating around him appeared from a magic circle on the ground, glaring across the field. "Since I have a level four monster, I special summon Kagetokage from my hand!"

From Yuma's shadow extended out a lizard with glowing red eyes. "I overlay my level four Gagaga Magician and my level four Kagetokage! Xyz summon!"

A familiar white and gold structure rose onto his field, unveiling his ace monster as the golden 39 flashed through the air. "Number 39, Aspiring Emperor Hope!"

Sarah merely blinked. "Okay. Then?"

"Then?" Yuma cocked his head, then nodded. "Oh, then! Then Hope attacks your facedown monster!"

The warrior drew his twin swords, and leapt forth, slashing at the card which flipped faceup. A small jar, with one large eye and a creepy, toothy smile peaked out from inside of it, which was promptly destroyed.

"Morphing Jar. When it's flipped faceup, we discard our hands and draw 5 new cards." Sarah said. "Although I activate my trap, Macro Cosmos."

"Huh?" Now Yuma was confused, as stars flew out of the trap card and around the field. "What does that do?"

"Any card that would go to the graveyard is now removed from play." Sarah said. "And we have to discard our entire hands now, so say good bye to everything in your hand because it's getting banished."

"What?!" Yuma stared at the cards in his hand as they turned into stars and disappeared into the sky.

"We draw 5." Sarah said, redrawing her hand. "Morphing Jar's gone, banished from play. Are you done?"

"O-Oh, I set one card facedown and end my turn." Yuma said.

"Okay. I draw." Sarah said. She frowned. "I activate Toon World!"

**Yuma: 8000**

**Sarah: 7000**

On her field appeared a huge green book, opening. From the book popped up a spooky, cartoon castle. Giggling and laughter was heard from the castle, as cartoon ghosts was seen in the windows occasionally. Yuma stared. A… cartoon castle?

"And I activate Scapegoat." She said, with four small goats of multi-colors multiplying onto her field, all of 0 attack and defense. "I sacrifice one of my tokens to summon Toon Dark Magician Girl."

One of the tokens disappeared, and from the castle appeared a cartoon version of the famous Dark Magician Girl. Huh? The little girl winked at him, and Yuma blinked in confusion. He was fighting… cartoons?

"I equip her with Twin Swords of Flashing Light – Tryce." She said, and two large swords appeared in the hands of her cartoon, being around the same height she was. The girl struggled with the two heavy swords, trying to figure out how to use them. "By discarding, or technically banishing due to Macro Cosmos, she loses 500 attack points, but can now attack twice per battle phase."

"Um, but she didn't have enough attack points to beat Hope to begin with." Yuma said. "This is just lowering it. What's the point?"

"This is the point." Sarah said, her voice still blank. It was starting to creep him out a little, with how expressionless it was. "My cartoons can skip past your field and direct attack you."

"Wait, what?!" The little girl struggled to pick up her wand along with the two swords, managing to carry them all as she ran, ducking underneath Hope's legs and dropping them on the other side. She picked up one of the swords and swung it at Yuma, who yelped as it hit him.

**Yuma: 6500**

**Sarah: 7000**

"Tryce's effect. She can attack again." She said. "Direct attack."

"Yuma! The trap!" Astral yelled. Yuma blinked. Oh yeah…

"Trap activate! Memory Loss!" He said. "When your monster activates its effect, I negate it and switch it to defense mode! And since attacking directly is its effect, it's switched!"

The Toon put down her swords and wands, sitting down on the ground in relief after seeing the trap open. Sarah barely reacted. "I end my turn."

"It's my turn! Draw!" Yuma said. "Okay, we need to get rid of that cartoon."

"Yes. Her monsters attack directly, causing faster damage than usual." Astral said. Yuma nodded.

"I summon Ganbara Knight in attack mode!" He yelled, as the shield-welding knight appeared. A sign next to it revealed 0 attack points.

"Y-Yuma! What are you doing?!" Kotori yelled.

"No, Yuma's got a plan this time." Shark said, making her stop yelling to look at him. "He's not the idiot he used to be. He's changed, if even slightly."

"I activate Cross Attack!" Yuma said. "With this card, in exchange for Ganbara Knight not attacking this turn, Hope can direct attack! You're jumping past my field, now I'll jump past yours! Go, Hope!"

The Numbers jumped into the air, flying above the cartoon castle and slashing at Sarah with its blades. She winced, but quickly regained her posture.

**Yuma: 6500**

**Sarah: 4500**

"I set one card facedown and end my turn." He said.

"Draw." Sarah said. "I activate Soul Absorption." The spell appeared on her field. "Toon Dark Magician Girl, direct attack twice."

"Impenetrable Attack!" Yuma countered, his trap flipping open. "I take no battle damage this turn."

"I don't care."

Yuma blinked. Huh? The toon ran up to him, trying to hit him twice with the swords. They hit him, but barely hurt, and once she was done she ran back to her side of the field. His life points were unchanged.

"Because of Macro Cosmos, Impenetrable Attack is now banished instead of going to the graveyard. Now Soul Absorption's effect activates." She said. "I gain 500 life points for every card that's currently removed from play. There are 6 for me, and 4 for you, adding up to 10. I regain 5000 lifepoints."

"6-6000 lifepoints?!" Yuma yelled.

"That many lifepoints recovered at once?!" Astral stared.

The card shot out lightning, striking her but not hurting her in the slightest.

**Yuma: 6500**

**Sarah: 9500**

"I end my turn." She said.

Yuma frowned. "Okay, this is getting annoying… Life points being recovered that much…."

"That's the effect of the continuous spell, meaning she will recover that many life points every time a card is banished, which in this case, will be every time anything is activated." Astral said.

"So I can't activate any cards without her gaining that ridiculous amount of life points?! Come on!" Yuma yelled. "Ugh! Now what!"

"An almost perfect combo. Banishing all of the cards that are used, and then regaining life points from it." Astral said. "But there's a way around it."

"Yeah… if I could just get the card for it…" Yuma said. "Draw!"

He looked at the card, then at Astral. "Strategy?"

"Strategy."

"Hope! Attack Toon Dark Magician Girl!" Yuma yelled.

"Even if she's destroyed I'll just gain lifepoints." Sarah said.

"I activate the spell Hand to Hand Combat!" He countered. "With this card, all spell and trap card effects are negated this battle phase! Meaning she's going to your graveyard!"

Sarah blinked as her monster was destroyed, smashed apart by Hope's sword. She frowned. "Why'd you do that…"

"Now I activate the continuous spell, Spell Lockdown! I choose one card on the field, and that card's effects are negated as long as this card is here. I choose Soul Absorption! I end my turn with one card facedown!" Yuma said.

Sarah stared blankly at her field, now with no monsters on it. "You destroyed her. You destroyed my Toon, and sent her to the graveyard…"

"Um, yeah. We're dueling, things like this will happen."

"Why? That's still my monster…" Sarah frowned. "And now she's in the graveyard…. How dare you…"

She drew her card, and suddenly a dark aura appeared around her. Yuma instantly stepped back. "A-Astral, you see that right?"

"Yeah. You know what this means." Astral frowned.

"I activate Pot of Benevolence." Sarah said. "Pot of Benevolence sends Toon Dark Magician Girl and Tryce back to my deck. Benevolence is removed from play, but it would have been anyways. Now I activate Token Easter. I destroy all my tokens, and draw 1 for each. There's three. I draw three."

She drew the three cards, and looked at them. "I can special summon Toon Mermaid with no tributes."

This time, a huge clam with huge eyes popped out of the large story book. It opened its mouth, revealing a green-haired, cartoon mermaid with a blue tail and a red archery bow. "I activate Inferno Reckless Summon. This lets me summon the two other Toon Mermaids in my deck."

The mermaid split off into three, so that now there were three clams with mermaids in them on her field, all giggling.

"Now I summon Toon Gemini Elf." Sarah said, two elf appearing on her field. "I overlay two of my level four Toon Mermaids."

The two cartoons flew into a portal, which burst apart. From it rose up a small gold and white warrior, very cartoonized. Yuma and Astral stared at it, along with Kotori and Shark. "I Xyz summon Number 39, Aspiring Toon Hope." The toon gave off a battle cry, a higher and more childish version of its originals cry.

"Aspiring… Toon… Hope…" Astral said.

"Hope's been, toonafied?" Yuma blinked.

"I'm not done. I overlay my level four Toon Mermaid and my level four Toon Gemini Elf." She said, the next two cartoons flying into the swirling portal. This time, a shadowy, dark demonic warrior rose up. It held a huge staff in one hand, and had a cold look in its eyes. "Number 95, Ruler of Toon World."

Yuma stared at it. "Astral…"

"Yeah. I see it too." Astral replied, his eyes narrowing. "This is the Numbers which we fought against before getting sent here."

"And right now Sarah has it." Yuma frowned. "This isn't good. This isn't good at all."

"_EHEHEHAHEHAAHEHAHEHAAA!_" He jumped slightly when he heard the creepy laughter. Behind Sarah appeared a person in a purple cloak, looking at them with a creepy glare. "Been a while, right Tsukumo Yuma? Astral?"

"W-Who are you—"

"Don't say you've forgotten!" Yuma stepped back at the yelling. Oh man, what was going on?

"Yuma-kun! Be careful!" Shingetsu yelled from behind him. "That's the most evil Barian who we've been chasing for many years, Vector!"

Vector laughed that loud and creepy laugh of his again. "That's right! And right now, I'll be getting rid of our most annoying pest, Tsukumo Yuma and Astral!"

"Technically that would be pests, not pest." Sarah said in her blank tone. They all looked at her. "Yuma and Astral are two people. Then it would be the plural pests, not just one pest. Unless you are implying the Zexal, where they are one person. But that could also be considered two people combined into one."

She was… bugging an evil Barian about grammar? Yuma blinked. Figures Sarah would do that…

Vector growled. "Who cares?! I'll use this girl and defeat you, and then all of your Numbers will be mine!"

Yuma frowned. "Like I'll let that happen!" He yelled.

"This isn't going to be easy…" Astral said, glaring at Vector. Yuma joined him.

"Yeah."

This wasn't going to be easy in the slightest.

* * *

**Spell Lockdown  
**Continuous Spell Card  
Target one face-up spell card on the field. As long as this card is faceup on the field, the targeted card's effects cannot activate.

**Token Easter  
**Normal Spell Card  
Destroy all tokens on the field. Draw 1 card for each token destroyed by this effect.

**Number 39: Aspiring Toon Hope  
**Xyz Monster / LIGHT / Warrior / Toon  
ATK: 2500 / DEF: 2000  
2 Level 4 Monsters  
This card cannot attack the turn it is Summoned. If "Toon World" on the field is destroyed, destroy this card. While you control "Toon World" and your opponent controls no Toon Monsters, this card can attack your opponent directly. When any player's monster declares an attack: You can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card; negate the attack. When this card is targeted for an attack, while it has no Xyz Materials: Destroy this card.

**Number 95: Ruler of Toon World  
**Xyz Monster / DARK / Warrior / Toon  
ATK: 3000 / DEF: 1000  
2 Level 4 Monsters  
This card cannot attack the turn it is Summoned. If "Toon World" on the field is destroyed, destroy this card. While you control "Toon World" and your opponent controls no Toon Monsters, this card can attack your opponent directly. Once per turn: You can detach 1 Xyz material from this card. Target one card on the field, and remove it from play. The controller of that card takes 300 points of damage. Then draw 1 card. This card cannot attack the turn you activate this effect.

* * *

**Me: . . . Should I run away now?**

**Astral: If you want to. **

**Me: Well okay then. Review. Don't kill me. That would be appreciated. I'll be running away now. BYE!**


	19. Kattobingu Kattobingu Everywhere

**Me: Skip talk, get to chapter! I don't own Yugioh Zexal!**

* * *

**Chapter 19: Kattobingu Kattobingu Everywhere**

"My Toon monsters can't attack on the turn they're summoned, but I can do this!" Sarah yelled. "By detaching an overlay unit from Number 95, I remove from play your Spell Lockdown, and you take 300 points of damage from it!"

The dark warrior raised his sword, and slammed it down onto the field, its shock waves destroying the trap.

**Yuma: 6200**

**Sarah: 9500**

"I end my turn." She said.

From the sky, Kaito jumped down, landing next to Kotori and Shark with Orbital on his back. "Orbital sensed something related to the Barians." He said to them, not caring that everybody else was staring at him in shock.

"K-Kaito?" Yuma looked at him.

"Yuma. Focus on the duel." Kaito said. Typical Kaito…

"This bad…" Anne said, being piggybacked by Orbital.

"Kaito, Yuma's in real trouble right now!" Kotori said. Kaito raised an eyebrow, then looked at his opponent.

"Sarah? What's wrong with that?"

"That monster," Kotori looked at Number 95, "That's the monster that the dude who sent Yuma and Astral here used."

"What?!" Kaito looked at the monster, and frowned. "So then, that would be the source of the Barian energy?"

"That's probably it." Shark said, his arms crossed.

_"I wish it was the other way around." Sarah said sadly. "That I was stuck in you guys's world instead of you guys in mine. I wouldn't miss this world at all. But you guys still gotta get home."_

"A cartoon world…" Kaito muttered, looking at the Toon monsters. "That's how you're doing it?"

"My turn, draw!" Yuma yelled.

"Yuma, at this rate, we can't do anything." Astral said. "We need to figure out how to bypass all of her cards and beat her head on."

"I know. But still!" Yuma said. "She's my friend! And she's being possessed by Barian…"

"So what are you going to do, Tsukumo Yuma! Astral!" Vector laughed from behind Sarah. Yuma cringed.

"I switch Ganbara Knight to defense mode and end my turn." He said.

"My turn, draw!" Sarah yelled. "Aspiring Toon Hope will destroy Ganbara Knight!"

The smaller version of Hope ran forwards, slashing apart the knight's shield and itself.

"Number 95! Destroy Number 39!" She yelled.

"No way! By removing an overlay unit from Hope, I negate the attack!" Yuma countered. "Moon Barrier!" His Number absorbed the unit, and its wings became a shield for the dark warrior's sword, which bounced off harmlessly. Sarah glared.

"That overlay unit gets banished due to Macro Cosmos's effect! Meaning I gain life points! That was the 22 card removed from play!"

**Yuma: 6200**

**Sarah: 20500**

"I end my turn."

Anne clung to Kotori's leg, hiding behind it. Kotori patted her head sadly. "It's okay. It's going to be okay. Yuma's going to win."

"Scary…" Anne mumbled.

"Don't worry. Yuma will get through this."

Anne shook her head no. She pointed at Sarah. "Ninety nine… scary…"

Kotori blinked. "Huh?" She looked at Sarah. "Ninety nine… Tsukumo…"

"Draw!" Yuma yelled. He and Astral looked at the card, and they smiled at each other. "Hey Sarah! Thanks for the card!"

Sarah blinked. "I play Mystical Space Typhoon!" A small tornado spun onto her field, destroying apart her Soul Absorption.

"Oh yeah! And now that that's out of the way," Yuma called, "I summon Bull Blader!"

The ground broke apart, and a strange warrior with a head of a bull climbed out. "I overlay my level 4 Bull Blader and my level 4 Ganbara Knight!" Yuma yelled, the two monsters flying into a newly made portal on the ground. "I build the overlay network with these two monsters! Kattobingu daze, ore!"

Sarah twitched slightly. "Kattobingu…"

"Xyz summon! Appear! Warrior of Light! Heroic Champion, Excalibur!" A warrior dressed in silver and red armor, with a huge golden sword appeared onto the field, with two lights flying around it.

"Yuma, do you remember?" Astral asked. Yuma looked at him.

"Remember what?"

"Hope's other effect in this world."

Yuma blinked. His eyes widened.

_**-flashback-**_

_ "Yeah, but Number 39 is different here." Sarah said, looking over some cards scattered across the floor. _

_ "How?"_

_ "Well, for starters, Numbers can be destroyed by regular cards. The whole 'Numbers can only be destroyed by other Numbers' is only back in your world, not here."_

_ "Seriously?!" Yuma yelled. "Aww…"_

_ "Plus with Number 39, if it's at no overlay units, it's going to get destroyed by any monster that just targets it for an attack."_

_ He blinked. "And that means…"_

_ "That means as soon as Hope is out of overlay units, any monster at all, regardless of attack points, can destroy it." Astral said from behind him. "As well, we will take the full attack points of the monster who's attacking."_

_ "What? That sucks!"_

_**-flashbackend-**_

"Aspiring Toon Hope is a copy of Hope from this world." Astral said. "Meaning it should have the same copied effects."

"I get it!" Yuma smiled. "Now I activate Gagagawind! With Gagagawind, I can special summon a Gagaga monster from my hand! Come out, Gagaga Caesar!"

A spellcaster covered in white robes and holding out a large golden staff, with a deep red cape behind him appeared onto the field.

"Excalibur's effect! By removing both its overlay units, I double his attack points!" The two overlay units flew into Excalibur's sword, making both it and Excalibur glow with golden light. "Excalibur attacks Number 95!"

"Aspiring Toon Hope's effect! By removing an overlay unit, I negate the attack!" Sarah yelled. "Toon Barrier!" The toon's wings grew longer, blocking Excalibur's sword and knocking it back.

"Yuma, attack Hope with Hope!" Astral yelled.

Yuma looked at him with confusion, but still yelled "Aspiring Emperor Hope, attack Aspiring Toon Hope!"

"Aspiring Toon Hope's effect! By removing an overlay unit, I negate the attack!" She yelled, her toon's wings growing longer again as it stopped its larger self from attacking. "Toon Barrier!"

"Now, Yuma!"

"Gagaga Caesar attacks Aspiring Toon Hope!" The spellcaster charged forwards, swinging its staff. It shot a beam of energy at the toon Hope, shattering it apart and continuing forwards to hit Sarah, who cringed as she shielded herself.

**Yuma: 6200**

**Sarah: 18700**

"I end my turn!" Yuma yelled, then looked at Astral. "Hey Astral, how did you know she'd use that overlay unit even when it wasn't really necessary."

"Right now, Sarah seems obsessed with protecting those monsters, with not much foresight into what would happen later. If she had not used the overlay unit, both of our monsters would have been destroyed. She's too concerned with protection to see strategy." Astral said. "So she would use both overlay units to protect the monsters."

"Oh…" Yuma looked at Sarah. "So, she just wants to protect them…"

"Yes. That's her extent right now." Astral looked at the field. "If we keep this up, we will slowly be able to whittle away at her life points."

"My Hope…" Sarah said quietly. "Draw." She put the card in her hand without bothering looking at it. "Why? Why is it this always happen…?"

A dark aura appeared around her, and her eyes glowed black. "WHY?! EXPLAIN, TSUKUMO YUMA!"

Yuma stepped back in shock. Anne clung onto Kotori tighter, whispering "Ninety nine scary…"

Then as quickly as it came, it disappeared. "I activate Rank Up Magic, Barian's Force!" She yelled, the Barian symbol appearing on her forehead. The Numbers flew into the sky, where a Numbers portal was waiting. "I rebuild the overlay network with my Number 95! Chaos Xyz Change!"

"Barian's Force!" Yuma frowned.

"Appear! Emissary of Darkness from the depths of the Barian World!" She yelled. "Chaos Number 95, Dark Ruler of Toon World, Despair!"

The dark warrior reformed onto her field, having grown in size. It had a cape on its back, along with a huge golden staff. It glared down at Yuma and Astral, towering over the field. It didn't look the tiniest bit like a toon.

"Barian's Force's effect! I steal your Hope's last overlay unit and give to to my Despair!" Sarah said. "And now I detach an overlay unit to remove from play your facedown and Excalibur! Disappear!"

The monster slammed its staff into the ground, breaking apart the area underneath the two cards and making them disappear into the abyss. "Plus you take 400 points of damage for each!"

**Yuma: 5400**

**Sarah: 18700**

"And now I summon Toon Goblin Attack Force!" She continued. "Normally, Toon Monsters wouldn't be able to attack on the turn that they're summoned, but that's changed with Dark Ruler's effect! Since they can attack, I have Toon Goblin Attack Force direct attack you!"

The charge of small goblins, all armed with clubs, ran forwards, and hit Yuma with all of their clubs.

**Yuma: 3100**

**Sarah: 18700**

"Despair! Attack Yuma directly!" Sarah yelled, her monster pointing its staff at Yuma and Astral. Black lightning shot out of it, shocking them both and making them scream.

"Yuma!" Kotori screamed.

**Yuma: 100**

**Sarah: 18700**

"I end my turn with one card facedown." Sarah said coldly. "Toon Goblin Attack Force switches to defense mode now."

Yuma pushed himself up slowly. His body hurt. Man, his body hurt. This was supposed to be all AR, and yet it still hurt. There was a humongous gap in the life points. How was he going to bring that down? Maybe he should just stay down. Maybe then—

"Yuma! What are you thinking?!" Yuma snapped awake, looking at Astral, who was gazing down at him worriedly.

"Astral…" He blinked. Huh? Why was he thinking that? "I… don't know…"

"We need to focus—" Astral cried out in pain, his form beginning to fade in and out.

"Astral!" Yuma yelled. He bit his lip, then looked back at Sarah. "There's only one thing for me to do right now. Draw!"

He looked at the card and smiled. "The second card. I activate Pot of Greed! This lets me draw two more cards from my deck!"

"But… that card's banned…" The shop manager said.

"There's no time to worry about that!" Kotori yelled at him. "This is getting really dangerous!"

"T-This is dangerous?" Some others whispered.

"Let's get out of here! This is getting weird!" Someone else said. Around half of the audience ran off of the roof as the whispering went around.

Yuma put his hand on his deck, focussing. "Kattobingu daze, ore!"

Sarah twitched again.

Yuma stared at the card. "This could… work!" He yelled happily. "I summon Gagaga Girl!"

A blonde girl dressed in black magician clothing with a matching hat burst onto his field. There was a large pink ribbon tied behind her, with pink strands floating around her. She held a cellphone with two skulls on a chain attached to it.

"I overlay my level three Gagaga Caesar and my level 3 Gagaga Girl!" Yuma yelled. "I build the overlay network with these two monsters! Xyz Summon!"

A short-haired girl riding on a large, golden brass instrument, with tiny horns in her hair landed on the field from a burst of colourful notes, smiling happily. "Player of the holy trumpet! Melomelomelody the Brass Djinn!"

"Gagaga Girl's effect! Since she was used to Xyz summon with another Gagaga monster, we can make one of your monster's attack points zero for this turn!" Astral continued.

"Go Gagaga Girl!" Yuma said, the shadow of his monster appearing behind the Djinn, typing some commands into her phone. "Zero zero call!" Soundwaves from the phone shot out, zapping Number 95 as it groaned, getting smaller in size.

"Melomelody attacks Chaos Number 95! Melody Wave!" Yuma yelled.

"I activate my trap! Shift!" Sarah yelled. "This switches the attack to my Toon Goblin Attack Force!" She covered her face as the loud sound blasted apart her band of goblins.

"Melomelody's effect! By removing an overlay unit, she can attack again!" Yuma continued. "Melody Wave!"

The brass instrument began blasting loudly again, blowing away the Chaos Number and Sarah.

"The Chaos Number got destroyed…" Vector's face twisted.

**Yuma: 100**

**Sarah: 17300**

"Aspiring Emperor Hope, direct attack! Kattobingu daze!" The golden warrior leapt into the air, slashing down at her as she screamed.

**Yuma: 100**

**Sarah: 14800**

"I set two card facedown and end my turn!" Yuma finished. "Hey Sarah! No matter how many lifepoints you are above me, I'm gonna Kattobingu and get past them, and win!"

Sarah shook. "Why. Why can you still say that in a situation like this?!" She screamed. "How can you still believe there's hope in a situation like this?!"

"Of course there is!" Yuma yelled back, making her flinch. "If I Kattobingu, I'll definitely be able to do it!"

"Shut up shut up SHUT UP! Shut up with the Kattobingu already!" She held her head, screaming out the words. The dark aura appeared around her again, and when she glared at Yuma again, he saw her eyes were swirling black. He thought he saw a shadowy figure behind her. It wasn't Vector, no… it was something else. "Kattobingu doesn't get you anywhere here! It's a stupid belief in your show! Your TV show! Believing doesn't get you anywhere! Trying your best just gets you knocked down! It doesn't mean anything here! It's ridiculous!"

"S-Sarah…"

"It doesn't work! It never works! It hasn't worked in any place else and it isn't going to work in this world either! It doesn't give you Numbers, it doesn't get you any farther, it doesn't get you any closer to the Numeron Code!"

"What?!"

"Numeron… Code…" Astral said slowly.

Vector frowned. "You let it slip."

"Whatever! They won't survive long enough to find out what it is anyways!" The shadowy figure yelled, beginning to solidify, forming into a teen older than them with dark clothes and spiky hair pinkish-red hair with pointed black bangs.

"One?!" Yuma stared, then blinked. "You're not One…"

"Of course I'm not! One's lazing off at the hospital, regaining his energy after he used to all of it keeping your duel disks and d-gazers functional! I'm here about to crush you! I'm Force!"

"One's in the hospital?" His eyes widened.

"That Number One who was with Yuma…" Astral frowned. "He's here."

"That' doesn't matter! You're both going to disappear here!" Force yelled as Sarah drew her card. "As soon as you lose, it's all over!"

"I activate my last trap, Return from the Different Dimension!" Sarah yelled. "I bring back my three Toon Mermaids, along with my Toon Gemini Elf!" The four monsters reappeared on her field from a portal in the sky. "I summon another Gemini Elf! And activate the spell Double Cyclone! I destroy my Macro Cosmos in order to destroy your first facedown!"

"Five monsters?!" Yuma blinked, recognizing this series. "Does that mean…"

"I overlay my three level 4 Toon Mermaids and my two level four Gemini Elfs!" She yelled, five monsters flying into the swirling vortex in front of her. "I build the overlay network with these five monsters! Xyz summon!"

A dark light flashed as a mechanical white box rose from the ground. It unfolded one part at a time, first the dark claws, then the scaly tail, and then the pitch black wings. "The embodiment of suffering and despair from different worlds, descend!" On her field stood a pitch black dragon lined with silver, with five silver lights zooming around it. "Number 99! Negative Force of Hate!"

The dragon roared, echoing across the entire city and sending shivers up many people's spines. The remaining audience ran out the doors, except for Kotori, Shark, Kaito, Anne, and the shop manager, who didn't understand a thing. Force's body became more solid as he landed on the ground, and Vector silently laughed from behind them both.

"Number 99…" Astral said quietly.

"Negative Force of Hate… Positive Force of Hope…" Yuma mumbled. "Negative Force… Force…"

"You're losing now and you'll be erased like all the others Astral! Yuma!" Force yelled.

Yuma frowned. "Not yet I'm not!" He yelled.

"Your hope will always get crushed!" Both Force and Sarah screamed at the same time. "THAT WILL NEVER CHANGE!"

* * *

**Me: …. Yeah the next chapter's probably gonna be long… long long long… meaning more writing time. Cause I sorta wanna stick to my whole "20 chapters per part". I ACTUALLY GOT THIS FAR IN THIS! My god…. I dunno why but I feel like sulking now… I feel terrible... at both this and how my mom made me sign up for three extremely hard classes which I have to do through the summer, so basically she wants me to devote my entire life to it. During Summer Break. Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuugh...**

**Number 39: Aspiring Toon Hope  
**Xyz Monster / LIGHT / Warrior / Toon  
ATK: 2500 / DEF: 2000  
2 Level 4 Monsters  
This card cannot attack the turn it is Summoned. If "Toon World" on the field is destroyed, destroy this card. While you control "Toon World" and your opponent controls no Toon Monsters, this card can attack your opponent directly. When any player's monster declares an attack: You can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card; negate the attack. When this card is targeted for an attack, while it has no Xyz Materials: Destroy this card.

**Number 95: Ruler of Toon World  
**Xyz Monster / DARK / Warrior / Toon  
ATK: 3000 / DEF: 1000  
2 Level 4 Monsters  
This card cannot attack the turn it is Summoned. If "Toon World" on the field is destroyed, destroy this card. While you control "Toon World" and your opponent controls no Toon Monsters, this card can attack your opponent directly. Once per turn: You can detach 1 Xyz material from this card. Target one card on the field, and remove it from play. The controller of that card takes 300 points of damage. Then draw 1 card. This card cannot attack the turn you activate this effect.

**Chaos Number 95: Dark Ruler of Toon World, Despair  
**Xyz Monster / DARK / Warrior / Toon  
ATK: 3000 / DEF: 1500  
3 Level 5 Monsters  
This card can only be Xyz Summoned. Cannot be Summoned unless you control a face-up "Toon World". If "Toon World" on the field is destroyed, destroy this card. This card can attack your opponent directly, unless they control a Toon Monster. If they do control one, this card must target a Toon Monster for its attacks. All of your Toon monsters may attack on the turn they are summoned. If this card has a "Ruler of Toon World" monster as an Xyz Material, it gains this effect.

● Once per turn: You can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card, then target up to two cards on the field. Those cards are removed from play, and your opponent takes 400 points of damage for each card removed from play by this effect.

**Astral: While she recovers, please review. I need to get her out of the corner.**


End file.
